


Counteraggression

by thewickedloki



Series: Inversionverse [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, F/F, F/M, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-24
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-02 12:02:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1056544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewickedloki/pseuds/thewickedloki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone is courting Death, and that doesn't sit well with the rest of Yggdrasil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Counteraggression uses elements from the MCU, comics, and mythology, but some of the characters will be altered to fit this universe. This story is not meant to follow any preexisting universe to the letter. These are deliberate choices on the part of the author. (That's a fancy way of saying, no, I didn't do it wrong, that was all intentional.)
> 
> Some elements of this story may be disturbing to some readers, including but not limited to graphic depictions of violence and aftermath of Loki's time with Thanos. Chapters will be notated for any additional elements that may be disturbing to some readers. This story is most definitely intended for mature audiences. Standard disclaimers apply.

Frigga clasped her hands in front of her and closed her eyes, taking several deep breaths to steady herself. In for a count of seven, and then out for a count of nine. A faint green glow hummed between her palms, and she held the magic silently until her heartbeat had slowed. So many endless days, so many sleepless nights, and at last she’d seen him beyond the stretching branches of Yggdrasil. She had seen Loki. She had seen her son.

The joy at her discovery that he lived was at war with the terror gripping her as she reflected upon his appearance. The sheen of sweat made his already fair complexion seem not just pale, but deathly. A weariness so profound that it had transformed into an animalistic, desperate strength coursed through his lean limbs and trembled along the frayed and tattered edges of his magic. His eyes reflected a strange blue glow not his own, bleeding into the green once so rich it was as a new leaf budding, shifting as the outmost edges of the visible cosmos into something alien and cold. Worse, she could hear him screaming, his voice raw and rough without his ever having made a sound. She could hear it with a sense that was impossible to explain, and so she didn’t; she merely listened, and ached, and shook with a rage so great it seemed that her body would be unable to contain it.

There was fear in her son’s eyes, and whoever that fear was directed toward would suffer unspeakable agonies when she found them.

“He moves,” she murmured, spreading her hands slowly. The magic clung to her fingers like green honey, and she peered into it as the images coalesced in her mind to form within that cloud. Odin, Thor, and Sif moved closer, viewing what sped through her mind as she sought the shadows around the pockets in the universe. Loki had learned magic from her, she would use it to find him and bring him home, and woe betide any fool with the stupidity to stand between her and her son. “He uses the Tesseract.” Her eyes snapped open, and she knew that the same green of the cloud had seeped into her eyes just as the blue had tinted his. “Loki is on Midgard.”

Thor’s brows furrowed. “Why would he go to Midgard before returning home?”

“Someone ordered him to.” Frigga turned her gaze to the Allfather, and to his credit, he did not flinch; rather, his spine stiffened and his eye narrowed. “We are at war.”

The silence was thick enough to wrap around her shoulders, and yet Frigga remained motionless while the seething anger boiled in the pit of her belly. Odin’s fingers tightened almost imperceptibly on Gungnir, and Thor gripped Mjolnir until his knuckles whitened. It was Sif who broke the silence.

“What did you see, my queen?” Her eyes, so rich and sharp, fixed on Frigga’s with an alarming intensity. “What did you see that you haven’t told us?”

“Thanos, the titan. He has my _son_.” Frigga turned her eyes slowly back to Odin. “Asgard is at war.”

Odin let his breath out slowly. “Asgard is at war.”

#

The helicarrier hadn’t seen this much activity since it was announced that Captain Steven Grant Rogers had been discovered in the ice, but that particular event hadn’t sparked quite as much heartburn; as it stood, Agent Phil Coulson was beginning to wonder if he should just buy stock in antacids. The chalky little tablets tasted less and less like assorted berries with every bite, and he wondered vaguely if there was a circle of hell devoted entirely to what pharmaceutical companies thought fruit really tasted like.

His appointment didn’t so much announce herself as cause a general wave of undiluted terror to pass through everyone within a twenty-foot radius. He turned and nodded. “Agent Romanoff.”

“What do we know about his whereabouts?”

“I assume you’re talking about Agent Barton rather than our extraterrestrial friend.”

Natasha plucked a tablet out of a passing technical analyst’s hand and began swiping her fingertips across the screen. “Clint knows how to disable security. How long did it take us to lose him?”

“After the compound imploded? Thirty-seven seconds.”

“How many casualties?”

“Too many.”

“Fury and Hill?”

“Assembling the team as we speak. Director Fury’s got Captain Rogers. Agent Hill is making sure the appropriate precautions are in place here.” He handed her a slender manilla folder with an even thinner smile. “We need you to talk to the big guy.”

She put the folder underneath the tablet and flicked through more surveillance footage without looking up. “Coulson, you know that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me.”

“Oh, I’ve got Stark. You get the big guy.”

She froze, then lifted her head slowly. “ _Bozhe moi_.”

“You’ll be fine. Just smile.”

“Just smile.”

“Natasha.” He took the tablet from her, pulled up a video clip, and handed it back. On the screen, Agent Barton’s eyes glowed bright blue as a wickedly curved scepter touched his chest, and a few seconds later he drew his pistol and fired at the metallic case Director Fury was gripping. “We need you to talk to the big guy,” he said quietly as Barton plucked up the case to hand to Dr. Selvig. “They have the Tesseract. We don’t have a whole lot of time. I saw what this thing can do in New Mexico. Unfortunately, so did Barton.”

Natasha’s brows furrowed. “He was helping Loki.”

“As was Dr. Selvig and a handful of other agents who had direct physical contact with that scepter. The surveillance footage we were able to salvage shows each of them being touched over the heart, their eyes glowing blue, and then this. If it was anyone but Barton I’d say they were—”

“Sleeper agents,” she supplied softly. “But Clint isn’t a sleeper.”

“No, he isn’t.”

Natasha handed the tablet to Coulson and tucked the file folder under her arm. “Looks like I’m talking to the big guy.”

#

Loki’s vision swam, and he clung to the scepter and struggled to haul himself back up to his feet. It was too much all at once, using the Tesseract’s call to fling himself across the universe, channeling its power through the scepter as Thanos had taught him, getting the agents somewhere secure while he disappeared to come here, of all places, and he only had a few minutes at most…

The heat from their bodies pierced into his skin as they neared, and he shrank away from them with a low, guttural sound. “Get _away_ from me,” he managed, swatting at the air in front of his face as he fell against the scepter. “Do not come _nearer_ to me.”

Fandral grabbed a handful of Jane and Darcy’s shirts as he stopped, yanking them back and pulling them behind him. “Loki.” His voice was soft, soft like the sound Jane made behind her hand, soft like the brush of Darcy’s hand against Fandral’s back. Everything soft. Too soft. It was terrible and sick and wrong. _He_ was terrible and sick and wrong, he couldn’t be here, not when he’d break them into little bloody pieces and hurt them and…

“Get _away!_ ”

“Loki, do you know me?” Fandral’s fingers tightened to jerk Jane back when she would have moved forward. Darcy seemed to have frozen.

“Know you. Of course I know you, you _idiot_.” He struggled to regain his footing, breath coming short. “But don’t _touch_ me. Don’t come _near_ me.”

Jane’s voice was eerily calm. “Loki, what happened to you?”

He chuckled, then raised his eyes to hers and began to laugh. How was he to answer a question like that? How could she, how could _any_ of them have the faintest idea? It was funny. The idea of explaining it to them was actually _funny_. Tears welled in Loki’s eyes and spilled over as he bent at the waist, cackling until his chest heaved and his voice had risen to an uncharacteristically hysterical pitch. She wanted to know what had _happened_ to him! Loki stumbled backward and collided with the door frame as he laughed.

Fandral murmured something as he moved forward, and Loki had the scepter pointed at his chest almost instantly. His eyes narrowed, voice dropping to a low hiss. “I didn’t tell you to move, Fandral.” He tilted his head and smiled. “And aren’t I your prince? Aren’t you meant to obey me?” He lowered the scepter and sniggered again. “Obey. _Obey_.”

“All right.” Fandral held both hands out, palms facing upward. “I won’t move, Loki.”

He sniffed and rubbed the heel of his hand across his temple, smile fading. “You have to obey, but you can’t obey. What are you going to do, hm?” His jaw tightened, a muscle jumping in his cheek. “What are you going to do about the _dead princeling,_ Fandral?”

Fandral swallowed. “You aren’t dead, Loki.”

“I’m not?” He swung the scepter around and pointed it at Jane, and Fandral shoved her behind him again. “Then why is she here?”

“You came to her home.”

Loki shook his head, brows furrowed. “She can’t be here. He wouldn’t let me see…” He leaned forward to look her over. “I have to be dead.” The smile spread slowly across his face. “I have to be dead. Odin’s dead foundling. Laufey’s dead son. Frigga’s dead _bastard_ boy.” He covered his eyes with his free hand and laughed again. “I have to be dead, Fandral, don’t you see that?”

“Loki–”

“Jane, don’t.”

There was the sound of scuffling, and Loki glanced up to see Jane shoving at Fandral and, when that failed, jumping up to look over his arm. “Loki, look at me, damn it.”

Loki pressed the scepter’s tip to Fandral’s temple and forced his head to one side as he stared at Jane. “Why was it you, Jane Foster? Why?” His eyes narrowed. “ _Why?_ You could have been anywhere in the cosmos. You could have lived and died in a blink of time. Why were you _here?_ ” His lip curled. “I could have gone through my entire existence without ever knowing your name and your breath and your mind. _Why?_ ”

Jane held his eyes, fingers tightening on Fandral’s arm. “Tell me the truth, Loki.”

“The truth.” His vision exploded in a prism of color, and it took him a moment to register the moisture sliding down his cheeks. “The truth is that I _have_ to be dead, Jane Foster, because that would be easier than living with what I have to do.” He stepped back, and there was a thin trickle of blood along the side of Fandral’s face where the scepter had pierced his skin. “Get her away from Midgard. She shouldn’t have to die, as well.” The corners of his mouth turned up again. “I have to do this.”

“Who wouldn’t let you see me, Loki?”

His heart was beating too fast. “The titan. He’s coming for the Tesseract.” The laughter that spilled from his lips had that edge of hysteria again. “I have to give it to him, or he’ll destroy everything for her.”

Fandral’s eyes widened. “Thanos,” he whispered, and Loki nodded.

“Get her to Asgard, Fandral. One final command from your dead princeling. Keep her safe from me.” He closed his eyes and slipped into the Nothingness.

#

The entire royal family, Sif, Volstagg, and Hogun were waiting at the Bifrost observatory when Heimdall brought Fandral and the two human women hurtling to Asgard. Seeing his comrade so visibly, viscerally shaken was a worse shock than encountering two clearly uncomfortable mortals in the Realm Eternal. Hogun set his jaw and tightened his hands into fists at his sides, lest he reach for his mace. Swinging it would accomplish nothing productive, even if he wanted nothing more than to smash something into tiny pieces. He and Volstagg had been told of the Queen’s visions, and her words had barely left her lips when the messenger from Heimdall’s station had burst into the grand study and breathlessly begged them to hurry along the rainbow bridge.

Hogun’s eyes widened as Fandral blurted out a tale even more fantastic than the one they’d just heard. “And I’ve no idea where he’s gone now, but he’s somewhere on Midgard, and considering the phone call Jane received from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, I can only assume that she would be in as much danger from her own people as…” He bent at the waist, hands just above his knees. “…Forgive me, my king, queen, prince, friends… I fear I’m about to be ill.” He sank to his knees, then fell back. He looked like a little boy with his legs drawn up to his chest, staring up at them all with eyes too wide. Hogun could hardly blame him, and had to fight the urge to join him.

One of the women stepped forward. “I’m sure there’s some kind of protocol I’m missing here, so, sorry about that, but how do we find Loki and help him?”

Frigga watched her for a moment, and Hogun shivered. “You are Jane Foster.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I am.”

The Queen blinked slowly, and she seemed to draw warmth from the atmosphere, for she’d had none in her a moment ago. “Hogun, Volstagg, and Fandral will escort you and your companion to the palace.”

“No.” There was a pause, and the woman cleared her throat. “It’s very kind of you, but I need to know what’s happening, and if I can, I want to help.”

The Allfather turned Gungnir slowly in his hand. “You are mortal, Jane Foster. You live for but a fraction of our lifespan, you can neither command magic, nor, from the look of you, wield weapons of war.”

“But I could help Loki figure out how to use the Tesseract in less than a week,” she replied, and Hogun nearly smiled at the slight narrowing of her eyes. “And Loki came to see me. I’m not going anywhere.”

The corner of Frigga’s mouth turned up. “On the contrary, I believe you will be going somewhere, Jane Foster.”

Odin sighed quietly and turned to Thor. “We must prepare the realm for a war we cannot hope to win without assistance. If Thanos is coming to Yggdrasil, all nine realms are in danger of being destroyed.”

The second human woman raised her hand. “Uh, stupid question time. Loki said _he’d_ destroy everything for _her_. I’m guessing the ‘he’ is Thanos. Who’s the ‘her’ he was talking about?”

“Lady Death,” Hogun said, holding the mortals’ eyes and, not for the first time in his life, thanking the fates that he’d long ago mastered the art of concealing all emotion from his face. “The titan is in love with Lady Death.”

Volstagg shifted his weight from one foot to the other and looked at Thor. “…There’s a plan nobody’s saying out loud that I’m hoping isn’t the plan.”

Thor turned Mjolnir between his fingers. “It’s the plan, my friends.”

Fandral groaned from the ground. “There has _got_ to be a less unpleasant way of dealing with unpleasant people. How does adding _more_ unpleasant people solve anything?”

Jane tilted her head. “What plan? What unpleasant people?”

Sif stepped forward and hauled Fandral to his feet, eyes locked on the women. “Hela. We need Hela.”

Fandral blinked up at Jane. "And, apparently, you. You should have let us take you back to the palace."


	2. Chapter 2

Everything was wrong. Wrong, all of it wrong. Loki dug his fingers into his hair, the scepter clattering to the ground. None of this was right. There was something _off_ , something in his head that was supposed to be there but wasn’t, some…

The lancing pain caught him by surprise, which made it that much worse. He screamed and collapsed to his knees as the voice thrummed through his thoughts, murmuring things no living creature should know, secrets of the darkest corners of the cosmos that should remain trapped in the Nothingness instead of in his mind. He rocked back and forth with a low keening noise, gut twisting as he tugged at his hair. He’d rip his own skull open if it would just _stop_.

“In, count of seven,” he whispered as tears rolled down his cheeks. “Out, count of nine.” He drew his breath carefully through his nose and let it trickle out between his lips. He could almost hear his mother’s voice teaching him the exercise, but no. That wasn’t real. Nothing was real, or so he was led to believe. So he had been told by The Other, by Thanos himself when he deigned to visit with his prisoner himself rather than leaving him in the cold, many-fingered hands of that terrible being. He’d preferred Thanos to The Other, who caressed his cheek with six gentle fingertips while he whispered in his ear. The Other had made everything feel more real, had been able to conjure images of beauty and safety in his feverish mind and display them in ruin. Thanos was too obsessed, too much the tyrant bent on total domination and destruction to bother himself with weaving those little tapestries of horror for Loki. No, those thoughts, those sick little vines binding and strangling his mind had come from The Other. Yes, they had discovered quickly that he was a Jotun by birth, and only Aesir by culture. Yes, they had learned that the heat of the stars themselves could be harnessed to bring him into unspeakable agony. It had been The Other, though, who had found Loki’s heart, who had seen the faces of Thor and Frigga and even Odin, who had learned the names of Sif and the Warriors Three, who had pulled those thoughts of loved ones in delicate strings like sap from an oak tree, and who had set them ablaze. It had been The Other who had suggested to Thanos that Loki would comply if Asgard was threatened, if his so-called brother and parents were the object of the titan’s terrible imagination, if his friends were described to him as the first to fall so that his family would be the last, so that Loki would see the anguish in their faces. The Other had found Loki’s undoing, and while he pulled apart the threads holding his mind together, he’d found Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, Erik Selvig, and the Tesseract.

_In, count of seven. Out, count of nine._

Thanos had made a mistake.

_In, count of seven._

He had believed Loki would comply.

_Out, count of nine._

Thanos had told Loki his plans.

_In._

Loki had command of the Chitauri.

_Count of seven._

Even more than that.

_Out._

Loki still believed.

_Count._

Loki believed in Odin and Frigga.

_Of._

Loki believed in Thor.

_Nine._

 #

“Coulson, you better have good news for me.”

He cleared his throat. “Mr. Stark is on his way, sir, but he insisted on taking his own jet.” Coulson fought to keep a straight face. “Because ours didn’t have a bar.”

Fury drew in a deep breath. “Mister Stark is gonna have my foot in his ass if he doesn’t get here on time.”

Across the deck, Steve Rogers watched the exchange with raised eyebrows. He couldn’t say he was surprised that Howard Stark’s son would have an ego, but even Howard had refrained from drinking on the way to briefings. He turned back to the tablet and swiped his finger slowly across the screen, reading through the profile again. Erik Selvig had contact with this Loki character before, so the odds of Loki choosing him at random, or out of convenience, were slim to none. Loki'd also had contact with Agent Barton, so again, there was a reason for that choice.

What Steve couldn't understand, and what was going to be driving him nuts until he could, was why Loki hadn't chosen Agent Coulson as well. Director Fury had made the argument that Loki had chosen a scientist and an assassin, and had no use for Agent Coulson, but Steve knew better. If you had the opportunity to take out one of the people in charge, you did it, and Loki knew that Agent Coulson would have been a valuable asset. From what he'd been able to gather from the surviving surveillance footage, there hadn't been an opportunity to get to Director Fury, either to capture him or to kill him, because the entire complex had been about to collapse on top of them. The same was true of Agent Hill. The next person in the chain of command was Agent Coulson, and he was the only other person in that complex who'd had a personal connection to Loki. Loki _knew_ that Agent Coulson would have information about the Asgardian for S.H.I.E.L.D. to use.

The other thing bothering Steve was the death toll. Loki had killed three people with that scepter after they attacked him, and then six more during his escape. The casualty count was now over twenty-five, and most of those, no matter how hard he looked at the evidence, seemed to be on his director's head.

Steve lowered the tablet and sank back in his chair. He was keeping focused on the mission, because lives were at stake, but he couldn't help feeling a moment of selfishness here and there. He'd lost everyone, and he wasn't sure how he felt about the people he'd found.

With a small sigh, he stood and rotated his shoulders. There was one person who'd listen without looking at him with that quiet mixture of exasperation and hesitant awe people seemed to be giving him more and more, even if she was going to disagree with him.

 #

"Wait, say what?" Darcy shook her head, and Thor managed a tired smile.

"I am truly sorry to put you through such trials, and so quickly, but we must hurry. We have little time, and Asgard must prepare for war while I go after my brother."

"Is that such a good idea, considering Loki's current state of mind?"

"If anyone knows Loki's mind, Fandral, it's Thor." Sif turned to look at him. "But let me go with you."

He shook his head. "You need not put yourself in harm's way."

Her jaw tightened slightly. "Thor, where you go, I go."

Something in his chest eased, and he nodded. "Thank you, my lady."

His father tightened his grip on Gungnir, and his mother gave them all a small smile. "Do not worry. My son is resourceful. He has a plan, and we will get him back." She looked at Thor, eyes flashing. "We must."

Thor's hand somehow managed to find Sif's as they approached the observatory. "I am afraid," he said quietly.

"For Loki?"

"For Loki, and for all of us." He met her eyes with a slight shiver. "And I like it not."

Her fingers tightened in his. "You are not alone." She smiled, though it did not reach her eyes. "In either your journey or your fear. For such a force to threaten Asgard and threaten Loki frightens me, as well. There are tales of the titan Thanos, and I wonder if even Hela could best him, if she will assist us at all."

"We must have faith."

Sif's voice was softer as they came closer to Heimdall. "Which of us are you trying to convince?"

"Both of us." He sighed quietly and tightened his grip on Mjolnir. "Heimdall, we must away to Midgard, as close to this S.H.I.E.L.D. organization as possible."

The Gatekeeper almost seemed to smile. "They are currently mobile, my prince. Perhaps your particular powers will be more well-suited than my lady sister's."

Thor felt the corner of his mouth twitch as Sif stepped into him, and he wrapped his arm around her waist as Mjolnir nearly hummed in anticipation.

# 

Natasha huffed and swung once more around the bar before dropping lightly to the mat. "Fury knows what he's doing, Cap." She reached for a towel and watched his reflection in the polished wall. If his jaw was any tighter, it'd snap. "There was a reason he didn't want the Tesseract getting out."

"I know that better than anyone, but it still got out, and it cost lives."

"Sometimes sacrifices have to be made." She turned to watch him, keeping her own expression smooth. "You know _that_ better than anyone, too."

"My sacrifice was my call to make."

"Your commanding officers never put people's lives at risk to stop the enemy?"

There was a strain around his eyes that at once looked entirely wrong on such an earnest face and suited him perfectly. "There's a difference between sending soldiers to the front lines and bringing an underground complex down."

"You say that like there wasn't an evacuation."

"What about sealing off the labs while the complex was collapsing, locking people inside, when Loki was already in the tunnels on his way out? How do you justify making that call, Agent Romanoff?"

"Any of the people in that complex could have been under Loki's control."

"So your solution is to kill innocent people, just in case."

"You think it's better to let guilty people go?"

"Last I checked, that was how this country was supposed to work. Innocent until proven guilty."

"Times have changed, Captain."

His eyes seemed to darken, lose some of their color, and Natasha swallowed her sigh. Disillusionment didn't look good on heroes, and that growing mistrust in his eyes was likely to turn to despair any second. That much, she knew from experience. He shook his head and let his breath out slowly. "I appreciate your honesty, whether I agree with you or not."

Natasha opened her mouth to answer, but fell silent as Coulson's voice crackled in her earpiece.

"We have a situation."

Natasha and Steve both touched their ears simultaneously, and she arched an eyebrow. "You need us both?"

"Yeah, I think we could use everybody. We have company."

"Hostile?"

There was a slight pause. "More like foreign ambassadors."


	3. Chapter 3

Thor’s grip on Mjolnir eased slightly as they approached, and Sif dropped her hand from the back of his arm. He knew these mortals well, having spent many visits over the past year speaking with them and strengthening the faded bond between the realms. Sif could not be so trusting, nor so hopeful, for they had kept the Tesseract when it had no business being anywhere but locked safely in the Allfather’s vault. Reclaiming it through diplomatic means had failed, and no one wished all-out war with Midgard. From a personal standpoint, she could understand the desire to have the increased power to defend their home, but from the view of someone betrothed to the future king of Asgard, someone who would sit that throne herself one day, the safety of the realms came before the comfort of any single one of them.

Sif kept her expression as neutral as possible as they were led into what appeared to be the command center of the aircraft, and they were met with looks ranging from pure astonishment to poorly concealed mistrust. She supposed they could hardly be blamed, considering what Loki had done. Her stomach churned to think of it. The idea of Loki dead, or lost to the cosmos, had nearly broken all of them in some way. Loki as the enemy seemed so much worse.

Her attention snapped to the man and woman entering the room from the other end of the aircraft. Both carried themselves like trained warriors, and the woman was armed. Coulson, the man from the desert called New Mexico, gave them a small nod. “Captain Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America, and Agent Natasha Romanoff, code name Black Widow.”

Thor gave a warm smile, and Sif’s brows furrowed as she looked at him. He seemed somehow more a king now, in spite of, or perhaps because of, the familiarity he seemed to have with this organization. “I am Thor, son of Odin, brother to Loki, and heir to the throne of Asgard.”

The man extended his hand, and Thor took it warmly. “Steve. I’m sorry we didn’t meet under better circumstances.”

Thor nodded. “Indeed. This is the Lady Sif, first of Asgard’s warriors.”

Sif nodded, then accepted the offered hand. “We are here to assist.”

“Can’t be easy,” the woman said, stepping forward and tilting her head. Sif’s eyes narrowed. “Having to come after your friend. Your brother.”

“Natasha,” Coulson said quietly, but Sif touched his arm.

“No, allow her to speak her mind. I would not so easily trust the family and friends of my enemy. It would be foolish to expect your people to do so.”

The corners of Natasha’s mouth turned up ever so slightly. “Glad we’re on the same page, then. If you can talk him down, do so, but we’re not going to hesitate to get our people back.”

“Nor should you.” Thor put a hand gently at the small of Sif’s back. “But we have information you may wish to hear.”

#

“Okay, so, if I’m hearing this right, and I’m really hoping I’m not, Hela’s just as likely to _kill_ all of you as she is to help you.”

Fandral gave Jane his brightest smile. “Of course not, my dear lady. She’s _more_ likely to kill us than to help us, unless we can get her sufficiently angry at someone else, or give her something fascinating to distract her, such as a human or two to talk to.”

Darcy blinked. “Sooo… she’s basically like a toddler with a twelve gauge.”

Fandral stared at her for a moment. “I’m not entirely certain that I understand that reference, but possibly.”

“And we’re the lady-shaped lollipops you’re bringing to distract her.”

“Darcy, please don’t ever refer to us as lady-shaped lollipops again.”

Volstagg shook his head. “Hela isn’t going to kill anyone.”

Fandral raised both eyebrows. “Really? You truly think that? The queen of the dead realm isn’t going to kill anyone? It’s not as though she has a history of slaughtering Aesir, Vanir, elves, whoever she can get her hands on, so that she can feed off of their energy as the last breath of life slips between their lips, hm?”

Hogun stared at him. “I thought I was meant to be grim.”

Fandral stopped in his tracks. “Hogun, did you just make a jest? Sweet merciful stars, Ragnarok is upon us and we’re all doomed.”

Darcy smacked his shoulder. “A little less with the scary negativity making me fear for my life, please.”

He sighed heavily. “Forgive me. I am not a man accustomed to feeling so…” He threw his hands up in the air. “So helpless.”

Volstagg shook his head. “We’re not helpless. We have a plan!”

“How much of a plan, my friend? Enough to actually work, or enough to fend off the growing horror of our current situation for a bit longer?”

“We have a plan,” Jane said, crossing her arms over her stomach. “It involves playing dancing monkeys for the Norse goddess of the dead while Loki tries to trick a titan named after the Greek god of death, but we have a plan.”

“Actually, you’re thinking of Thanatos, although that could be a derivative of Thanos if someone on Earth had heard a story about him when the mythology was being constructed, and Thanatos was closer to a demonic personification of death rather than a deity.” Darcy nodded, then widened her eyes. “Will you guys _stop_ being so surprised when I know things?”

Jane paused and peered up at Heimdall. “You see everything, right?”

“I see many things, Jane Foster, but no being in the universe sees everything.”

“Can you see Loki?”

He paused. “I can.”

Jane licked her lips and took a deep breath. “Is he okay?”

Heimdall was quiet for a moment. “Loki has suffered a great many things, but from what I have seen, I do not believe that he is beyond saving.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.”

Darcy looked at her and nodded. “Time to hang out with the scary death lady.”

#

“Well, Dr. Banner’s all set up, and so far, Stark’s playing nice with him.” Natasha sank into a chair and tipped her head back to stare at the ceiling. “The key phrase being ‘so far.’ Coulson’s playing Asgard-to-forties translator between Cap and Thor. I can barely keep my eyes open.”

Maria leaned against the table and set her tablet aside. “That’s because you haven’t slept since you found out Barton was compromised.”

“And I probably won’t until we get him back.”

“Natasha.” She paused, and her voice was softer when she began again. “You know we might not be able to get him back.”

“I know.”

“Are you too close to this? I could call in Agent May.”

“I can handle this.”

“There’s nothing wrong with admitting when you’re too—”

“I’m on this, Maria.” Natasha looked up. “Until we either get Clint back, or he’s gone for good. He’d do the same for me.”

“And if we have to take him down? If you’re the one in the field when we find him?”

“Then I’ll take him down.” Her expression never changed. “I’m going to do everything I can to bring Clint home, and if I can’t, I’ll take the shot and make it quick, but only if there’s no way we can get him back.”

Maria pressed her lips together. “Maybe things will go a little bit more smoothly now that we have the prince of Asgard on our side.”

One of Natasha’s eyebrows arched. “You mean, maybe now we won’t have to default to Director Fury’s plan.”

“It isn’t that I don’t trust you. If it was Strike Team Delta, I wouldn’t hesitate, but it’s not. The Avengers Initiative is beyond reckless. This team is—”

“This team is the best chance we’ve got.”

“SHIELD can handle this with our own internal agents.”

“Captain Rogers is the only man alive who has experience with the Tesseract’s effects.” Natasha ticked off her fingers. “Dr. Banner is the only man alive who’s knowledgeable enough about gamma radiation to find it. Stark’s the only man brilliant enough to keep ahead of whatever Loki’s planning. Thor is Loki’s brother, so nobody knows him better.”

“And you? Why are you okay with this, Natasha? You work best alone, or with Clint.”

“Because I escaped the Red Room to join SHIELD, infiltrated Stark Industries, and managed to talk Dr. Banner into coming here when this is the last place in the world he wanted to be. You don’t need my resume.”

“I know, I know.” Maria crossed her arms under her chest. “But there has to be a better way to get this done that isn’t so…”

Natasha stood and crossed the room. “I know Fury’s reckless, but he makes the calls nobody else can and manages to get things done.”

Maria met her eyes with a small smile. “And how often am I cleaning up after him?”

“You’re a good team. Like me and Clint.”

“You don’t want to punch Clint as much as I want to punch Fury.”

“No, because I actually punch Clint, I don’t just stand there wanting to.” Natasha grinned and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. “I’m going to go look over my files again.”

“Try laying down, maybe you’ll get lucky and fall asleep for a few minutes.”

#

Loki shuddered and scrubbed his hand across his face, the lingering feeling of The Other’s mind invading his own like oil slithering across his skin. He was tempted to press his palms to his ears to keep his brain from dripping down the sides of his face. A tremor began in the center of his chest and spread through his limbs. He clenched his fists and squeezed his eyes shut. _Soon. Everything will be over soon._ His eyes opened slowly, a faint itching at the base of his skull. _It’s almost over. Just a little while longer._

“Sir?”

He flicked his gaze up to Agent Barton, then stood as the scepter materialized in his hand. “Are you ready at long last?”

“Yes, sir. Dr. Selvig has all the components he needs except one.”

A sneer crept across his features. “Then what do you need?”

“An eyeball.”

#

Jane stared at the looming black spires reaching to scrape the edges of the low-hanging clouds. Three worlds in as many hours, but in those moments, even the possibilities of scientific exploration and discovery couldn’t quite shake the terror. Loki’s voice snaked through her memory.

_Helheim is here, where live creatures of blackness and terror. The Vikings believed this to be the land of the dead. It’s a place of unspeakable horrors._

“Ho-ly shit,” Darcy murmured, moving closer to Fandral.

“This is the capital of the dead,” Fandral said, drawing Darcy closer and rubbing her arm, his free hand resting on his sword hilt. “Not a place I ever wanted to see again.”

Their footfalls weren’t silent so much as the sound was swallowed up by the air around them. Hogun and Volstagg flanked her, their hands twitching and gripping the weapons they couldn’t draw.

_The dead don’t go to Helheim, but the things that live there defy any natural order that even I can explain, and the beings there are called Náir. They may as well be the dead as far as I’m concerned._

“She knows we have arrived,” Hogun said.

“Then surely she’ll grant us an audience.”

“You sound so hopeful about that, Volstagg, as if that won’t be terribly detrimental to our health.”

Jane cut him off. “Fandral, this is Nastrond, right?”

“It is.”

“Where’s Nidhoggr?”

_The capital is a place called Nastrond. According to your Vikings, the dragon Nidhoggr who chewed on the roots of the world tree lived there and sucked on corpses._

Volstagg’s fingers clenched and unclenched rhythmically. “Best not to ask after the whereabouts of dragons, my lady.”

“An inquiry in this realm can lead to a discovery,” Hogun added as they approached the palace gates. Wrought iron curled into talons that reached to tug the sky down, and from the looks of it, pushed deep into the rock to grip the ground. No one stood at the gates, and yet they creaked open as their party approached. Jane and Darcy both yelped as the stone beneath their feet shook suddenly, and all five jumped at the piercing screech tearing through the air.

_There aren’t roots for Nidhoggr to chew, as far as I know, but he does tend to eat the dead. Rather unsettling beast._

“And you hesitated when you were telling me about Jotunheim,” Jate muttered, taking a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with.”


	4. Chapter 4

"I certainly wasn't expecting to see any of you," the voice purred, and Jane tried to suppress the shiver long enough to determine where it was coming from. The shadows seemed to be reaching from the walls of the massive room that she couldn't see, but that wasn't possible. Shadows needed a source of light in order to have an origin point, just like a voice needed a person as their origin point. The problem was that she couldn't see a light, only less darkness, and the source of the voice didn't seem to be any more apparent than the light she knew had to be there.

Fandral, Volstagg, and Hogun quickly turned so that their backs were to each other, and Jane and Darcy were within that triangle of protection. Darcy’s back was pressed to hers, and Jane tried to peek around Volstagg’s arm.

“A pleasant surprise, I hope, dear lady” Fandral called out, hand hovering near the hilt of his sword.

The voice laughed, and it seemed to come from everywhere at once. Jane shivered, the sensation shooting along her nerves reminding her of waking form a nightmare in a cold sweat. “An unannounced visit from Asgardians and these… mmm, what did you bring to me? How… tender. Are the mortals of Midgard as delicious as Asgardians?”

Darcy flinched. “Nope. No way. I taste terrible. There’s a lot of product in my hair, I’m wearing perfume, my makeup’s the cheap drug store kind, all sorts of chemicals. I taste nasty. You’ll get wicked heartburn.”

The laughter grew louder, closer, and gathered in one area of the vast room behind Jane. “This one’s funny. I like her already. Bright summer berries getting plump and juicy in the sunlight. And you…” Suddenly the voice was on the other side of Volstagg, and Jane somehow managed to stay silent when a pale hand with slender fingers wrapped around Volstagg’s shoulder and pried him away with no visible effort. Jane stared into eyes not quite as green as Loki’s, with little flecks of gold swimming in the irises ringed with black. “You positively tingle with life.” A pink tongue darted out to wet blood red lips that parted in a wide, delighted smile. “Your breath tastes bitter and sweet all at once, like you’d stain my mouth when I sucked you in.” The woman closed the distance between them, the silky black folds of her dress tickling the air around them, and dipped her head to meet Jane’s eyes. The elaborate braids were held fast to her scalp with what Jane assumed were pins of some sort. “You, little mortal, taste familiar.” She licked the air less than an inch above Jane’s lips, and it took every ounce of resolve Jane could muster to remain still. “You taste of knowledge and curiosity, and finality. There was a delightful story in your world once of a fruit that bound the daughter of the earth to the realm of the dead. A sharp fruit, with little pockets of juice around the seeds.” Her lips moved closer, and Jane had to hold her breath to keep from breathing in the next words. “Your soul tastes of pomegranate, little mortal. Your soul tastes of curiosity and death, and a brush of something sharper. You taste of Loki.”

#

Loki’s eyes narrowed as he watched the mortal moving into position. Clint Barton. Archer. Agent. Orphan. Loner. His lip curled at the word that had circled in Barton’s mind more than any other. _Freak._ His talent had been his curse. He had made himself important, had made himself special and noticeable, and yet was nothing compared to the others whose files had been grouped in with those being called to join _the Avengers Initiative_. His was the least sophisticated skill set, even with the trick arrow heads that Asgardian forces would be even more fearsome with, should he manage to smuggle the technology back. He felt that he was nothing compared to his comrades. He had no formal education to speak of, no family to fight for, no physical enhancements to augment his abilities, and even his strengths were minimized when he looked around him at every man and woman who could be trained to be what he’d become, and who, in his mind, would be a greater asset to the only organization to give him a home since the circus.

_Freak. I’m just a freak with a fancy set of sticks and twangy string. Circus freak. Carnie freak. Freak freak freak nobody wants the freak not even the circus not even Trickshot not even Barney no Barney’s gone now because of the freak who couldn’t keep his head down couldn’t keep his mouth shut couldn’t just let it go couldn’t save him couldn’t save Barney like he saved me couldn’t save him and take his punches like he took mine couldn’t save him just a freak a worthless freak freak freak._

“Are you ready, Agent Barton?”

He snapped to attention, his already blue eyes glowing brighter with the Tesseract’s poison, ripping open a hole in his mind just large enough for Loki to reach into. “Yes, sir.”

Loki nodded, the air shimmering around him to transform his battered armor into a tailored suit and scarf, and to mask the scepter as a walking stick. “Go.” He watched Barton move around the building as he strode up to the main entrance, turning his face toward the security camera. “Don’t let me down, brother,” he whispered, eyes flashing blue. “I know you’re watching.”

#

“You already know who I am,” the woman murmured, close enough to kiss. Jane barely nodded, afraid of any movement that would cause them to touch.

“Hela.”

The glittering eyes narrowed slightly. “And why do you taste of Loki?” Her head tilted, and as the shadows caressed the side of her face, Jane imagined that she could see the flesh rotting away. In an instant, the image was gone.

“I don’t know. I haven’t touched him in over a year.”

Hela hummed and smiled wider. “You’ve touched him, have you? Mmm, you lucky thing. It’s so _rare_ for one of us to take a liking to one of you.”

Fandral cleared his throat. “One of us, dear lady? Are we to count ourselves among the same class of being as your magnificence now? Quite an honor.”

Hela’s eyes slid over him, and Jane could see him suppressing the shudder. “No, Asgardian, we are not the same class of being. There is a separation, though.” She grinned at Jane again. “Between us and them. Mortals and gods.”

The feeling was coming back to Jane’s fingertips, and she clenched her fists at her sides until her nails dug into her palms. She wouldn’t lose her sense of self. Not here. Not now. “You’re not gods. A different type of being, but not gods.”

“Do you not believe in gods, then, little one?”

Jane shook her head. “I believe in science. I believe in the observable universe, the rules of physics…”

“And the immortal being who consumes the energy expelled in the very moment of death is not a god to you?” She studied Jane with an odd expression caught somewhere between curiosity and amusement. “Is it any wonder that we fancy ourselves gods when we look at you? Do you not consider yourselves gods when you peer at the creatures living in your realm for but a fraction of your lifespan, whose existences you could snuff out with the barest stirring of breath?” Hela flicked her hands in a disturbingly familiar gesture, and suddenly it was Loki standing before her with the wrong eyes. “And when we inspire such adoration and fear,” the image said, “do you not worship us?”

Jane took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “No. Loki wouldn’t ask me that.”

“But I _am_ Loki,” the voice said, so soothing and familiar. The long fingers reached to hover over her cheek. “Just let me touch you again.”

Jane took a step back. “You picked the wrong illusion.”

The Loki image shivered and melted into a laughing Hela. “Oh, I can see why he’d choose someone like you to touch!” She stretched her arms high above her head and splayed her fingers, and the shadows snapped back to lay flat against the walls. The room suddenly had definition and bounds, and Jane let out a breath she hadn’t been aware she’d been holding. Hela turned to Fandral and shook her head. “You come here with all of your charm and bring Loki’s plaything with you.”

Jane’s eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me, _plaything?_ ”

Fandral flicked his eyes to her. “ _Jane..._ ”

Hela snickered and shook her head. “No, I’ve heard your dashing lines before, and Volstagg’s valiant optimism, and Hogun’s grim pragmatism. Now I’d like to hear from…” She licked her lips and spoke slowly. “Jane. Tell me what sort of mess our Loki has gotten himself into this time, and why you’re here for my help.”


	5. Chapter 5

Loki allowed himself to smile. There was something terribly, unforgivably wonderful about watching them scatter like ants around a stomping boot. He couldn’t let them get away, and he had no intention of killing anyone if he could help it, but he needed to put on a performance for Thanos… and perhaps the titan had struck a single chord of truth when he’d plucked at Loki’s mind and found ambition. “Both of us born to be kings, but only one throne in Asgard.” The corners of his mouth turned up higher, and he laughed up into the sky. “Do you watch me yourself, Allfather, or send your ravens to find me? Enjoy the spectacle.”

The clothing melted into armor, and as the wicked curves of his horns materialized, Loki twirled the scepter in his fingers. Perhaps it would be easier to give in, to allow this monster to consume him so that he wouldn’t mind it so much when Thor killed him. It certainly felt good now. Loki aimed for the tires of a vehicle and shot a bolt of energy from the scepter, not bothering to check how badly injured the driver would be before he walked out toward the crowd.

“Kneel before me,” he said, not really expecting anyone to hear him. Power surged through him and sped around the panicking crowd in a blue, shimmering circle to deposit his illusions at intervals. “I said… _KNEEL!_ ”

The humans fell silent, and Loki spread his arms wide as his illusions closed the humans in. They dropped quickly to their knees, and his grin became forced. “Is this not simpler,” he asked, voice growing soft and reasonable again, “is this not your natural state?” Now, he employed the mask. No matter how hard he tried, he could not make himself enjoy these words. Loki drew a deep breath through his nose. He played the conqueror, but tonight, he was the liesmith. “It’s the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation.” The words were sour on his tongue. “The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity.” Thanos spoke through him, and the Tesseract’s energy pulsed within him, setting his heart in time with the magic. "You were made to be ruled.” He was not Loki any longer. “In the end, you will always kneel.” He was Thanos.

An old man eased himself slowly to his feet and met Loki’s eyes. “Not to men like you.”

 _I tried that once,_ some small part of Loki registered, his mask beginning to break. “There are no men like me.”

“There are always men like you.”

 _No. Please, no._ The slight breath of laughter felt poisoned. _Brother, where are you?_ “Look to your elder, people.” _I have no choice. He’s watching._ “Let him be an example.” _And I will never forgive myself._ The scepter began to glow, and Loki clenched his jaw as he fired.

The bolt of energy collided with a shield and bounced back to strike Loki. “You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.”

Loki’s smile was genuine. “The soldier.” He felt the laughter bubbling inside him again as he stared at Captain America, completely unafraid and ready to kill him to protect these innocents. “The man out of time.”

“I’m not the one who’s out of time.” As one gloved hand tightened around his shield strap, another voice rang out through the night over the hum of a stealth jet aiming a very large weapon, presumably between his eyes.

“Loki, drop the weapon and stand down.”

“Not Thor, but you’ll have to do,” he murmured before a lightning bolt crackled through the darkness above, and he grunted at the familiar impact to his chest that sent him soaring backward into the building he’d just emerged from moments before. The stone cracked behind his back, and stars exploded in his vision as his head slammed back and the helmet took a chunk out of the wall.

Thor landed where Loki had been standing as Captain America and the woman in the jet—Black Widow, he presumed—instructed the humans to flee for safety. Thor’s expression was contorted with more emotions than he’d ever thought his brother capable of feeling at once. Loki saw the rage, despair, relief, fear, and exhaustion scrawled across features long accustomed to happiness, and he had never wished for death as strongly as he did now.

“Loki, what is this?”

He swept his cape behind him and leaned on the scepter. “This is what must be.” There was no mask now; at least, not in his eyes. He kept his jaw tight and voice even, but Loki willed Thor to understand as he held his brother’s eyes and knew that his own were glowing blue. “There is no stopping this.”

Thor’s eyes narrowed. “Why? What are you hoping to accomplish?”

Loki opened his mouth to reply, but whatever words were about to come tumbling from his mouth were cut off by Sif’s fist connecting with his jaw. He stumbled backward and turned his head to spit blood on the ground.

“Sif! What are you doing?”

She spun her sword in her hand and gripped her shield. “We cannot speak with him here,” she said quietly, and Loki flicked his eyes to hers.

_She knows._

“Thor, he needs to be contained.” Sif’s eyes never left Loki’s, even as she spoke to Thor over her shoulder. “He’s hidden the Tesseract, and he won’t give up its location easily.”

Thor’s brows drew together, and he clenched his teeth in reluctant comprehension. “No, he will not.”

Loki cracked his neck. “And here I thought that terrorizing the humans was my specialty. They’re as afraid of you now as they are of me.”

Sif’s spine stiffened, and Thor shook his head. “Not quite.” His voice lowered. “Don’t make me do this, Loki.”

His voice dropped. “I’m not looking forward to it, but there’s no other way.” He flicked his hand forward as he shot a beam of energy from the scepter at Sif, and a knife soared through the air. Thor knocked it easily out of the way with Mjolnir and leaped toward him as Sif was sent skidding backward. Loki braced himself as Thor collided with him, and the scepter went flying in the other direction as they both hit the ground.

“Jane Foster is with the Warriors Three,” Thor said quietly as they came to a gradual stop. He shifted, and Loki drew a knife from the folds of his armor and pressed the tip under Thor’s chin, voice barely above a whisper.

“Mother and Father?”

“Preparing for war.” Thor wrapped his fingers around Loki’s wrist and squeezed until he lost his grip on the blade. “...is it true, then?”

Loki gritted his teeth and cried out as he felt the bones in his wrist shift. “Thanos,” he managed, bringing his knee up hard and jerking his head forward to knock into Thor’s.

Loki barely had time to regain his footing before Sif was there, her shield swinging around to connect with his temple as her sword slashed in the opposite direction. He opted for the shield rather than the blade, grunting as he fell to his knees. The tip of the sword pressed to the base of his neck, and he knew that Sif was poised to drive her full weight down onto the hilt to execute him.

“Stop!” Thor’s voice held the commanding authority of a king, but there was the faint, desperate plea of a frightened older brother tinging his cry. “Enough!”

Sif moved her blade as Thor grabbed Loki’s cape and wrapped it around his hand to drag him to his feet. This close, Loki would see the tears threatening to spill over. Loki went limp, and Sif sheathed her sword to flank his other side.

“Imprison me,” he whispered, and he could feel Thor’s grip tightening on the fabric, twisting it and keeping Loki upright. “Not in Asgard. You can’t take me back to Asgard.”

Thor swallowed audibly. “Not yet.”

#

Hela reclined in a surprisingly plain and simple black chair, her elbow resting on the arm, and her head propped up by the two fingertips pressed to her temple. “That is quite the story,” she said at last, and Jane forced herself to keep breathing.

“Will you help us?”

Nearly a full minute passed before Hela moved, and the fury flashing in her eyes made Jane take a step back. “Do you know why the number three is so important, Jane? Why there are three warriors of Asgard banded together, why Sif was bound to grow up with and guide both Asgardian princes, why there are three elements in your realm that contain life? Earth, air, and water?” She ticked off three fingers. “Because the universe is build upon the principle of three. There is no dichotomy standing alone. There is no life and death without the balance between them. There is no day and night without the twilight. There is no beginning and end without the middle. You need at least three sides in order for something to stand on its own. There are three dimensions of space before the inclusion of time.” She pushed herself from the chair and held up three fingers in one fluid movement. “Three states of matter. Three distinctions of time. Three. Always three.” Her voice raised, and Jane backed into Volstagg’s stomach. “Three servants of the Lady Death. _Three_ of us, and no one more powerful than the other, to keep the Lady’s balance.”

Fandral grabbed Darcy’s arm and yanked her behind him. “Perhaps we should leave…”

“Three of us, and Thanos would come _here_ to eat _our_ power so that _he_ can court her favor above us?”

Darcy gulped. “Um… us?”

Hogun shook his head rapidly. “Do not ask.”

Hela’s eyes flashed. “No, let her ask. You brought the mortals, let them understand the horrors lurking in the corners of the universe that you try to shield them from.” Her voice was ice and burning electricity at once. “There are three great beings that even the so-called gods fear, because we consume their soul energy in death, but there are three beings above us, and the Watchers beyond them. Lady Death allows the three of us to rule in her name, and consume in her honor, while the children of her brother Eternity bring all life into being. Between them stands Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, who is the only living being to survive the death of the previous universe and the birth of this one.”

Jane stared. “Eternity and Death are actually beings?”

“Yes and no. They can take physical forms, but doing so lessens them. Galactus embodies the physical presence in all of his power that diminishes theirs, and consumes the universe that they create and keep in continual motion.” Hela rested one arm along the back of her chair. “It was not Odin Allfather who granted me dominion over the death of the gods, as your myths say, but Death herself. Mephisto was granted dominion over the mortal dead, and the titan Thanos…” Her lip curled. “He is in love with her, she who is like a mother and queen to us. He is fascinated with her. Obsessed. He is death in life, death in love, death in obsession. He is the living death of one who is consumed.”

“Boy, you guys monologue a lot when you’ve been alive for a couple millennia, huh?”

Hela arched an eyebrow at Darcy. “When one has lived for thousands of years, one does grow fond of the sound of one’s own voice, out of necessity.”

“Thaaat’s a yes, then. Not to look a creepy gift-horse in the mouth, but you went from ‘I shall eat your _souls_ ’ to History Channel documentary pretty quick. What’s the catch?”

“What Darcy means,” Jane said quickly, jabbing Darcy with her elbow, “is that…”

“I know precisely what she meant.” Hela sighed slowly and traced the edge of the chair. “If what you’ve told me is true, the balance is being upset, and Thanos is encroaching on dominions not his own. If you are to be useful to me, you must at least be marginally aware of what goes on around you, even if most of it is too vast for your delicate little minds to comprehend.”

Darcy planted her hands on her hips. “Heeey…”

“What do you mean, ‘if?’ We’ve told you the truth.” Jane shook her head. “Why would we lie about this? More to the point, why would we come all the way out here and risk getting our souls sucked out to lie to you?”

Hela lifted one shoulder. “I suppose it wouldn’t do much for your well-being to lie to me, and perhaps you aren’t quite that stupid. Still, one needs verification.” She smiled. “Let’s go to the source, shall we?”

Jane opened her mouth to scream, but a thick emptiness filled every cell of her body. She vaguely remembered Loki mentioning something called the Nothingness before she lost all sense of her body.

#

Loki glanced up, shackled hands gripping the plane’s harness tightly. “Did you feel that?”

Sif furrowed her brows and shook her head, but Thor shivered. “I felt something. What was it?”

“I’m not certain.”

The humans, speaking quietly at the front of the plane, all looked up at once as the sky became somehow more black than it had been a moment before. Loki barely had time to widen his eyes as a slender hand appeared out of nowhere, clapped over his mouth, and pulled him into a void as Thor and Sif leaped to their feet and screamed his name.

Loki tried to cry out, but the Nothingness stole his voice and his breath. He tumbled through the endless emptiness until he was suddenly flung onto solid ground again. He coughed and rolled onto his side, curling his body and struggling to breathe.

“Hello, _Daddy,_ ” Hela hissed, and a familiar voice cried out. Loki looked up to see Hela’s fingers tightening in Jane’s hair, lifting her to her tiptoes. “We need to have a chat before I break your little toy.”


	6. Chapter 6

Loki couldn't breathe. He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. _Don't take off the mask. Not now._ "Hela, you're looking as lovely as ever."

"Someone's been a naughty boy, hasn't he?"

He smiled, eyes still closed and mind racing. "I'm always naughty. Life would be rather boring if I wasn't."

"Oh, but there's a difference now, isn't there?" He could hear Hela's footfalls, light and soft as shadows, and Jane scrambling for purchase as she was dragged along behind her. "You aren't just playing tricks this time, Silvertongue. This goes well beyond mischief. I almost want to say you're being wicked." One pointed boot prodded the side of his face almost tenderly. "Why are you being wicked, Daddy?"

Loki laughed to conceal the shiver. "If I was your father, sweet Hela, that would put me much too close to Lady Death for comfort."

"Yes, let's talk about Lady Death, shall we?" There was a small yelp, and Loki grunted when Jane was flung onto his chest. "And why your friends saw fit to bring me this to pique my interest. Let’s talk about how you survived your tumble into the cosmos, while we’re at it."

Loki placed his hand on the back of Jane's head and held her close, willing her to stay silent as his mind raced. "You wish me to fathom the reasoning of the Aesir?" He turned his free hand to conjure a small green flame in his palm, turning it so only she could see, and Jane stilled.

Hela shook her head. "Centuries thinking you were one of them, and suddenly now so eager to claim your Jotun heritage?"

"Well, I'm not like them, am I?"

Hela's lip curled, though whether in a smile or a snarl it was impossible to say. "No, _Daddy,_ you're not." She rested her hands on her hips. "The Aesir aren't stupid enough to ally with Thanos against me."

Loki sat up, his arm moving around Jane's shoulders. "Are you all right?"

"I've been better." She was gripping his side hard enough to turn her knuckles white. "Not really a fan of being dragged around the universe like I'm nothing."

"Oh, you are everything, Jane." He smiled and looked up at Hela. "You're the only one who can stop me."

Hela snorted. "Undone by a human, Loki? How disappointing."

"Hardly, but unless you have suddenly become intimately familiar with the scientific concepts that Dr. Jane Foster has spent her young life mastering, Hela, she is the only one who can stop me." He stood, holding his hand out to Jane, and smiled. "You don't truly think that Thanos didn't plan for your interference."

“Thanos plans for little but his own grandiosity.”

“Your tone is steady, but I know you, Hela.” His fingers closed around Jane’s, and he stared at her for a moment with his back to Hela, allowing the mask to slip away. Her eyes widened, and he nodded before turning. “You’re frightened of Thanos, as well you should be.”

Hela smirked. “Frightened of Thanos? Your sojourn through the dark places of the universe has unhinged you, clearly.”

“What was it that glorious Midgardian playwright said? ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks.’”

Jane tightened her grip on his hand. “You know Shakespeare?”

“Shakespeare, that was it. William Shakespeare.” He gave her a lazy smile. “I appreciate wordsmiths from multiple realms.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it and shook her head. “Um… okay, then.”

Loki gave Jane’s hand another squeeze before letting it go. “Surely you aren’t surprised, Jane. I do love to read.” He let his eyes drift slowly over Hela, whose lip curled. “I love the acquisition of knowledge, which is a habit, I daresay, that makes me quite the danger to you.” He took the slow steps that separated them until Hela’s chest was nearly pressed to his. To her credit, she didn’t move, and under normal circumstances, the look in her eyes would have withered his resolve even if he had dared to approach her with this level of aggression. He felt his eyes shifting to blue once more. “I learned much during my travels, even before the titan found me.”

Hela leaned closer, breathing against his mouth. “And what did you learn when Thanos was torturing you, little god? When he was peeling away each layer of your armor and lacerating your sanity so that he could rub the grit and salt into your blood, what did you learn?” Her lips twitched. “Did he teach you his ancient magics? His torture techniques? Do you know how long you can hold someone on the brink of madness before their mind shatters into thousands of pieces, because that’s what he did to you?” She laughed, and her breath was cold on his lips. “Do you expect me to be afraid of you, Loki, because you’re one of his lackeys now?”

Loki brushed his nose against hers and whispered. “I expect you to be afraid of me because I know how to kill you, Hela, and I have an army.”

Hela laughed quietly, but he could feel the air around them pulsing with her power as she tried to hold it in check. “You can’t kill me.”

“Test me.” They were nearly kissing. “Test me, Hela. I have seen _infinity._ So has he. The Tesseract is only the beginning. Do you think Galactus is the only presence in the universe with a herald?”

Hela pulled back to stare at him, eyes wide. “You’re not Thanos’s herald.”

“I am his general. His warlord. I am a king in my own right, Hela, and every soul you plan to consume in Yggdrasil will belong to me. Every soul Mephisto seeks to steal will be mine. Thanos will destroy them all and leave the Nothingness where Yggdrasil once was, and you will both be extinguished, because the Lady will have no need of you when her consort truly is God.” He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. “So, do you truly think it wise to threaten me with Jane Foster’s mortality, or would you like to assist her in stopping me?” He grabbed her chin and held her face still even as her power coiled around them, cutting off the air as it entered his lungs. “Because there are very few ways in which this dance will end, but we will all dance.” His voice lowered. “And if any harm comes to Jane, I will use everything the titan taught me in conjunction with the magics he himself cannot access, and I will make you beg me for the death you feast upon, and I will deny it to you for as long as the world tree’s branches illuminate the cosmos.” He smiled. “Listen to _Daddy._ ”

“How is a mortal going to stop you?”

“With her clever, clever mind.” He released Hela with a little shove. “Collect the Warriors Three and make yourself available to my brother. He will need you. I would also advise finding some way to contact Mephisto and keep him in line. He has nearly as much to lose as you.” He grinned again, voice a low, soothing murmur. “But, for the time being, I must be off. Mustn’t keep the titan waiting. Midgard is only the first step.” He reached behind him to wrap his fingers around Jane’s wrist and inclined his head to Hela with a snide laugh, then tore open a hole in the Nothingness and sent them hurtling back to Earth.

#

“Where the _HELL_ did they go?” Darcy whirled around, then yelped when Fandral grabbed a handful of her shirt and tugged her back. “Yo, mustache, either tell me where Captain Nasty Girdle just brought my best friend, or let me _go!_ ”

“Sweet Darcy, I say this with a great deal of respect and affection.” He clamped one hand around the back of her neck and the other over her mouth. “Shut _up_.”

Hogun and Volstagg had their weapons at the ready. “We need to get back to Asgard,” Hogun said, and Volstagg nodded.

“Sooner rather than later.”

Fandral nodded, then looked at Darcy again. “I need to have my sword, which would be considerably easier if I could be assured that I’ll not need to yank you out of the jaws of Hela’s corpse-eating dragon because your shouting woke him.” He eased his hand off of her mouth, and she tugged her jacket back into place.

“You coulda just said so.”

“Thank you.” The rapier hissed as Fandral pulled it smoothly free from its sheath, and Darcy was once again tugged into the protective triangle of the Warriors Three.

“How do we get out of here?”

Volstagg tightened his grip on the axe. “We need to get to a place of safety so that Heimdall can open the Bifrost and bring us back to Asgard.”

“But he will not open the bridge if enemies could come into Asgard,” Hogun added.

Fandral sighed and spun the sword once. “Which means, Darcy, that we’re not entirely sure.”

“You didn’t think about this _before_ we came to the land of the living dead?”

Fandral smirked. “That was a reference to one of your zombie films, wasn’t it?”

“Fandral, _now is not the time to talk about George Romero, okay?_ ”

“Darcy, calm yourself. We’ve gotten out of worse situations than this one.”

Volstagg coughed. “I can’t think of any.”

Fandral turned slowly to Volstagg and spoke through gritted teeth. “Of _course_ we have.”

Hogun shook his head. “This is the worst of them.”

Darcy wrapped her arms around her middle. “This is the absolute _last_ time I have a friend with benefits from outer freaking space.”

“I resent that.”

“Well, I can’t exactly date more alien boys if I’m _dead,_ can I-AAAUGH!” Darcy knocked into Volstagg’s back and nearly lost her footing as Hela appeared before them. “ _DUDE._ Put a _bell_ on, and where the hell is Jane?”

“Get out,” Hela snapped, brushing past them in a rustle of skirts.

Darcy blinked. “Um… really? Because I’m all kinds of okay with that.”

“No one will hinder your return to Asgard, just get _out._ ” She waved her hand absently, and the shadows poured into the room again.

Fandral sheathed his sword and turned to raise an eyebrow at Darcy. “Didn’t I tell you?”

She smacked his chest. “Oh, like you knew.”

“I told you to get _OUT_!”

Fandral grabbed Darcy’s hand. “Right! Leaving!”

#

Loki released Jane’s hand as soon as their feet touched the ground, and not even a second had passed before her palm connected with the side of his face.

“What is _wrong_ with you?” She raked her hair back and whirled around. “You just… you can’t just grab me and… how am I supposed to _stop_ you when…”

“Jane, I don’t have time to explain everything. There isn’t time.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because Thanos is watching, and I don’t want him to come after you!” He stopped himself, his eyes almost as wide as hers. “I… Forgive me. I didn’t intend to shout at you. There are things at work that perhaps my brother will be better equipped to explain. Can you remember everything Hela and I spoke of?”

“It doesn’t make sense, but…”

“Thor will understand. You must trust him, and you must work with him to stop what is about to happen.” He dropped his hands to his sides. “I can only hold him off for so long. There isn’t time for me to explain this to you.”

She shook her head, then grabbed his face in both hands and kissed him. He groaned and slid his fingers into her hair. When she pulled back, her cheeks were flushed, and he had trouble breathing. “Loki, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.”

He glanced up at the crack of thunder, then forced himself to push Jane away. “Run. Run so he can find you.” Loki stepped back, his eyes locked on Jane until he flung himself into the Nothingness again.


	7. Chapter 7

Thor couldn’t be certain how long Jane Foster had been running, but she looked far more exhausted than she could rightly explain, and Thor could empathize. When he landed on the ground some feet in front of her, Mjolnir digging a small crater in the packed desert earth, she didn’t appear to have the energy to give him a reaction; she simply stopped running.

“Jane.” His voice sounded distant. Surely he was not asking her this. “Do you know where Loki is?”

She nodded, then shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t even know where we just were. Hela was…” She rubbed the back of her neck and turned around, staring at the vast expanse of emptiness behind her. “I’m supposed to stop him,” she mumbled before turning back to him. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Not a fate embraced by a woman of science,” Thor said with a small smile. “Not a fate embraced by a prince, either. We are both entangled in my brother’s plans, and unfortunately, I cannot say for certain that even he knows what he’s doing.”

She let her arms drop to her sides. “I want to help, but I need a starting point.”

“One of Loki’s more infuriating qualities is his propensity for dropping people into the middle of his plans.” He let Mjolnir dangle from his wrist. “Might we work together, Jane Foster?”

She nodded. “Darcy’s still with Fandral and the others. Hela just grabbed me and… teleported us, or something, to wherever Loki was, or brought us both somewhere else. I’m not sure. He said he has an army, and he knows how to kill Hela. He’s Thanos’s general.” Her brows furrowed. “There was a lot of grandstanding, but I think he did that so he could give me information.”

Thor nodded. “That sounds like him. What else did my brother say?”

“He said I was everything, and the only one who can stop him. He was talking about the acquisition of knowledge, and there were some weirdly specific phrases he used.”

His grip on Mjolnir tightened. “Such as?”

“He said he had seen infinity, but he said it like infinity should be capitalized, and that the Tesseract is only the beginning. Then he asked if Hela thought Galactus was the only one with a herald, and when she said he wasn’t Thanos’s herald, he corrected her and said he was his general. Then he said we’d all dance.”

Thor’s stomach twisted over on itself. “The herald of Galactus. Loki would not have mentioned him if Galactus was not a potential threat. We need to be wary of the Surfer.”

“The… _Surfer_?”

“The Silver Surfer, the herald of Galactus. It is the Surfer who scouts for planets suitable for Galactus to consume.”

Jane drew in a deep breath through her nose. “Right. Of course he does.”

“What else?”

“He told Hela to gather the Warriors Three, make herself available to you, and to contact Mephisto. He told me to trust you and work with you to stop what’s about to happen. Then…” Her cheeks flushed slightly, and she cleared her throat. “Then he told me to run so you could find me.”

“You were easier to see when you began to move.” Thor shook his head and swallowed. “This all bodes ill for both our realms, Jane Foster. I have been in contact with Philip, son of Coul, and…”

“Wait, you’ve been in contact with SHIELD?”

“I have. Lady Sif is with them now.”

“Then that’s where I need to be. I need access to their equipment if we’re going to find Loki.” She glanced up. “Want to give me a ride?”

#

Tony shook his head. “Listen, I’m sure you’re very qualified in your university, but–”

Jane tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Mr. Stark, I’m a big fan of your research, not so much of you, and right now I don’t really care how many dollar signs or degrees you want to wave around at me. I’m the only one here who’s had prolonged contact with the Asgardians, specifically Loki when he’s teleporting, and I’m the only one with recorded data from the first touchdown in New Mexico, so either you move away from that computer, or I’m going to move you.”

Sif leaned to one side and murmured to Thor. “Have I mentioned how much I like her?”

“More than once,” Thor said with a small smile. “This helps me understand why Loki is so fascinated by her.”

“And why she is so uniquely positioned to aid us.” Sif grinned and tapped the tip of her sword against her shield. “I believe, Man of Iron, that you will need to relinquish your equipment to Jane Foster.”

Tony threw his hands in the air. “Fine. But if you break my toys, I’m going to be very upset. Then I start crying, and I’m not one of those pretty criers. It’s messy, lots of tissues.”

“Stark, shut up.” Steve turned back to Jane. “You think you can find Loki?”

“As soon as I can patch into my files in New Mexico.” She typed rapidly, and Tony peered over her shoulder with a low whistle.

“That’s some heavy duty encryption.”

“Yeah, well, when the government starts pilfering your research, you get paranoid.”

“You’re an astrophysicist _and_ a hacker?”

“When I need to be. Do you always talk this much?”

“More, usually. Pepper’s not here to shut me up. Blueberry?” He tilted a foil bag at her, but she shook her head.

“I just need… there. Downloading my data. I have readouts on the lower-level radioactive measurements from the first Einstein-Rosen Bridge event, and if I can subtract those from the readings we have from SHIELD’s remaining data from Loki’s arrival at the bunker where the Tesseract was being held…”

“...you’ll have Loki’s radioactive fingerprint.” Tony swiped his fingers across a holoscreen beside them. “Plus the Tesseract’s gamma signature. Yo, Captain Broccoli, come help me isolate it.”

“Already on it,” Bruce said softly.

Sif watched them at work with a small smile. “This does not seem so insurmountable now, does it?”

Thor shook his head. “Not the odds I would prefer, but they will do. Fandral, Volstagg, and Hogun will have taken Darcy Lewis back to Asgard for her protection, and will be reporting to father and mother.”

“They’ll be organizing Asgard’s forces. When my brother heard your conversation with Jane Foster, he would have alerted the Allfather and the Queen. They will be preparing scouting parties to determine how close the Surfer is, and to rally the other realms.” She arched an eyebrow. “We may even find allies in Jotunheim.”

“Even Asgard is better than Galactus and Thanos,” he said with a soft snort. “Let us hope they will not betray us at the first possible moment, assuming they can organize at all.”

Sif slid her hand into his and squeezed his fingers. “Have faith, Thor. We’ve gotten through worse than this.”

“We’ve always had Loki with us.”

“Battles are not determined by Loki’s presence.” She rubbed her thumb along his knuckles. “And he is still with us, in a sense. He is orchestrating something.”

“The more I think on it, Sif, the more I fear he is orchestrating his own death.”

“Then we will simply have to out-think him.” She waited until he met her eyes and smiled. “We will get him back, Thor. We will not lose.”

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “I wish I had your faith.”

“I get my faith from you. Don’t lose hope.” She squeezed his hand again. “We will win this. Asgard will not fall while we are alive, and I have no intention of dying just yet.” Her voice softened. “We both have too much to live for now.”

Thor stared at her. “...now?”

Sif arched an eyebrow and lifted one shoulder. “Some months from now.”

His eyes widened. “You’re…”

Her grip on his hand tightened. “ _We._ Yes. There is too much to live for to be defeated, Thor.”

He blinked, then pulled her close. She wrapped her arms around him and let her forehead drop onto his shoulder as his embrace tightened. “You should not be fighting,” he said quietly, voice thick.

“No child of ours will shrink from battle, nor will I.” She gripped his shoulders. “So we will win quickly, before my armor grows too tight to wear comfortably.”

When Sif looked up, Jane’s eyes were locked on hers. “Congratulations,” she mouthed, and Sif smiled as she went back to her calculations.


	8. Chapter 8

_Magic does have a tendency to sneak up on us, doesn’t it? You wake in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat that may as well be made of ice, stones in your belly because you know that you’ve done something but you’re not entirely sure_ what _, your mind racing to a thousand different tragedies as you make absolutely certain you know where the exits are in the room, praying to some higher force you stopped believing in long ago that this is all just another nightmare when you know full well it isn’t. Your mother’s words, or are they your own, racing around behind your eyes where they’re just barely out of focus._

_In, count of seven._

_Out, count of nine._

Loki jerked upright, pupils slowly spinning down to their normal size as the dim, flickering light lanced through his skull. He pressed the heels of his hands to his temples and clenched his jaw, determined to keep his body from shattering like the splintered glass he knew he was comprised of. Gradually, feeling spread from the core of his heart to his fingertips and the soles of his feet, an odd combination of prickled burning and inexplicable chill, and he loosened his hold on his head, sure now that it was in no danger of exploding, and forced himself to stand.

Thanos had taught him not to allow his weakness to show, even in the slightest hesitations. He must not wait a moment longer than necessary to stand, or to open his eyes, and he must always wait to speak. He must analyze with even more precision than his mother had taught him, and strike with more cruelty than even his father was capable of.

_Which father?_

“Agent Barton,” he said, voice rolling like oil off of his tongue, and he had to make a conscious effort not to grimace at its taste.

The man moved to stand in front of him, spine straight as steel, eyes that hideously, unnaturally brilliant blue of the Tesseract. “Yes, sir?”

“Are we ready to move?”

“Should be able to get wheels off the ground in ten minutes, sir.”

Loki studied his face, carefully blank and emotionless. He had chosen this man to enslave for the same reason he’d chosen Erik Selvig. He knew they would retain something of themselves. He knew that they would sabotage themselves and each other, and him, in subconscious ways, even as the Tesseract held their conscious minds prisoner. Until he was stopped, until Thor was able to catch up with him and destroy him, innocents would have to die. Loki would place as little of that blood on Barton’s hands as possible, and none on Selvig’s if he could help it.

He would bathe in it so they did not have to, and so that not only would Thor’s decision be made for him, but also so that he would feel less guilt for the necessary execution.

Barton was still watching him expectantly, and Loki raised an eyebrow. “I have no need of you at this moment in time, Agent Barton.”

#

“Trouble, my sweet sister?”

“Quite a bit.” Hela folded the train of her cloak over one arm as she climbed the steps of her palace, glittering blacker than the deepest reaches of the cosmos, or so she liked to tell herself. “In the large, irritating, tyrannical purple form of our brother in death.”

Mephisto narrowed his eyes, darker still than Hela’s palace walls, and ran his tongue along fangs that, oddly, never yellowed. “What has Thanos done now?”

“He seeks the Tesseract, with Loki as his herald, and will either enslave or annihilate all of Midgard to appease Her.” Hela raised an eyebrow. “The human play _Oedpius_ comes to mind.”

Had his skin not already been flushed a deep, sanguine red, it would have done so then. “Earth is _mine_ ,” he hissed, tightening his taloned hands into fists until he felt the claws dig into his palms. Hela rolled her eyes.

“You’re so damnably dramatic.”

“What of the other herald?”

“There’s no sighting of the Silver Surfer within Yggdrasil yet, but I can’t imagine he’s terribly far. If Thanos succeeds, the herald may bring Galactus here to consume Midgard. He isn’t far. Neither of them are.”

Mephisto smiled slowly. “It would almost be worth facing Galactus to tempt the Surfer again.”

Hela turned and jabbed a finger against his sternum, ignoring the slight sizzling as her cold flesh made contact with his. “You are not jeopardizing this realm so you can have a cosmic pissing match, and the theatrics are hardly impressing me.”

“They keep me entertained.”

She locked her fingers around his throat, and his skin burned against her palm. “Mephisto, unless you would like to lose our balance with Thanos, and then have me to contend with if he doesn’t spread you across the Earth’s mountain ranges like jam, you’re going to work with me.”

“And what if I wanted to work with Thanos instead? Tempt Galactus?” He grinned and licked across his teeth again. “Don’t you ever get _bored,_ Hela? If Thanos collects the Tesseract, we could face the Allfather and feed him to Galactus ourselves. We could give him Asgard itself.”

“I’m not one of your mortals to be tempted, Mephisto.” She tightened her grip, blackened blood beading at the tips of her fingernails where they dug into his neck. “Loki mentioned Infinity. Thanos is after the Gauntlets and the Gems. The Tesseract will help him scour the cosmos for them, and then where are we left? Contending with Galactus and the Silver Surfer while Thanos rips existence apart looking for the Infinity Gems so he can become God.”

Mephisto still smiled, though it seemed to waver around the edges. “There is no God.”

“There will be if Thanos succeeds.” She shoved him away from her and flicked the blood from the tips of her fingers, her lip curled. “Stop being an idiot and open your hungry little eyes, _brother._ We ally ourselves with Loki and follow this ridiculous plan of his, or we lose everything.”

Mephisto touched his fingertip to one of the drops of blood on his neck and studied it before licking his finger clean. “And I thought I was dramatic.” He sighed, nostrils flaring. “Very well. We aid Loki and protect Earth so that we can stop Thanos.”

Hela blinked slowly, voice low. “And if we defeat Thanos, that’s one fewer share of Her attention to be given to someone else.”

“Now you court Lady Death, Hela?”

“No, but I’m not stupid. If we kill Thanos, we can divide his bounty between us. I can take Asgard, and all the souls in Valhalla. You won’t need to wait for your precious pacts with humans to take their souls. I will have all of the Asgardians, and you will have all of the mortals. We can divide the giants, elves, and Vanir among us, move against the fire and ice demons, move beyond Yggdrasil.”

Mephisto laughed. “You sound as hungry as Galactus.”

“Hungrier,” she purred, “but I don’t think with my stomach.”

#

Loki was standing in the center of the quinjet with the scepter held loosely in his hand. Barton pulled an arrow from his quiver and aimed at the general area in the sky where the helicarrier would be. “My magic can only conceal this craft for so long, Agent Barton,” Loki said, jaw tightening. He knew Jane, if no one else, would begin to suspect what was happening within SHIELD. He knew that Jane would press the others to think, to question. If Jane was too focused to move her attention from finding him and the Tesseract, one of the others would wonder why the Tesseract wasn’t taken from Midgard. Someone would wonder what would have kept Asgard from forcing the issue.

Someone would realize that weapons had been designed to be powered by the Tesseract, again, and Asgard feared taking the Tesseract when no one had any idea exactly how volatile Midgard was.

Loki looked at Barton as the arrow flew, and one of the helicarrier’s engines exploded. The reflective panels cloaking the airship flickered and fizzled as non-emergency power was diverted to keep it in the air. “Land and infiltrate the helicarrier,” Loki said, voice strained as he dropped the cloaking spell and sucked his power pack into himself. “I will teleport the weapons to Selvig’s location so that he can dismantle them and use their radioactive cores to unlock the Tesseract’s power.”

“Remind me why you can’t just do it?”

Loki turned his head slowly, snake-like, to stare at the man, a terrorist and enemy of SHIELD who was under no mind control whatsoever, who was eager to cause chaos and death for the sake of chaos and death. “Because I cannot lead an army if I must stand above the cube and feed my power to it. Go.” Loki looked at the helicarrier and, without allowing himself to wish for the safety of those on board, teleported inside.


	9. Chapter 9

Jane grabbed for Stark as the entire helicarrier shuddered and lurched, her fingers tightening on his arm as the power outside of the glass-enclosed laboratory flickered. He steadied her as best he could, both of them staring at the screen in front of her.

“Please tell me I’m not crazy,” she whispered, and Tony shook his head.

“Can’t do that, but I’m seeing it, too. That’s Loki.”

Thor and Sif were suddenly behind them, weapons clenched in their fists, and Jane reached her free hand back to shove at them. “You guys need to stop him, not look over my shoulder. The Tesseract isn’t with him. I need to find it.”

Sif glanced over Stark’s head, and Natasha moved forward. “Perhaps this is not the safest location for you, Jane Foster.”

“I need to trace this signal.”

Natasha grabbed a handful of Jane’s shirt and tugged her back. “Bruce, we’re okay, right?”

Jane’s eyes widened. She’d forgotten.

Banner pinched the bridge of his nose, taking several deep breaths. “I should probably go down to…”

Tony grabbed Jane by the shoulders and spun her around. “Out. Out now. Let’s go. Yo, Capsicle, help me out here.” He snapped his fingers and pointed down at Jane’s head. “Civilian scientist. No sense of self-preservation. Speaking from experience. Where can we put her?”

Jane shook Tony off, but when Steve’s hand fell onto her shoulder, she stopped and looked up at him. “I need to find the Tesseract. I can _do it_.”

“I’m sure you can, Dr. Foster, but you can’t do that if you’re dead.” He gave her a small smile, filled with more empathy than she was expecting. “Please let us keep you safe. We need you, but you need us, too.” He raised his eyebrows. “And don’t snap at me again, Stark.”

“Can you school me on proper emergency situation etiquette _after_ we solve the emergency, y’think?”

Another explosion shook the helicarrier, and Jane barely had time to blink before Steve was ushering her so quickly through the corridors her feet didn’t seem to be touching the ground. “No, I have to–”

“You have to be _safe_.” Steve barely finished his sentence before another blast rocked the ground beneath them, and he flung his shield up to cover her as hunks of fire and metal soared toward them, blocking her body from harm with his own. When he pushed her behind him, she managed to peer around him, heart sinking.

Loki looked past Steve, locking eyes with her, and she wasn’t sure whether she could see a flicker of pain in his face before his lips twisted into a snarl. He thrust the scepter forward, and the blast knocked Steve backward, away from her, even with the shield protecting him. Loki was there almost as soon as Steve wasn’t, his fingers winding around her neck and turning her face up to his.

“Tell me you’ve worked it out,” he said softly, then grunted as he was flung to one side.

#

“ _Loki!_ ” Frigga flung her arms out, searching for purchase against the smooth stone wall. Odin was at her side in an instant, Huginn and Muninn screeching and flapping their wings.

“Healers!”

Frigga swatted at Odin. “I don’t need a healer.” Her fingers tightened on his wrist, and he wrapped his other arm around her waist.

“Lean on me, Frigg.”

“He’s gambling with his life,” she said, eyes scanning a scene that wasn’t visible in Asgard. “He wants Thor to kill him.”

Odin’s voice grew sharper. “How do you know this?”

“I know our son,” she snapped, flicking her eyes to him. “And our son is able to weave the threads of a plan together in such a way that you need to be distant from the threads to see the tapestry.”

“Well, if the Queen of Asgard waxes so poetic, things must be dire indeed.”

Odin and Frigga looked up as Hela and Mephisto entered the receiving chamber. Mephisto smiled slowly, and Frigga noted how keenly Hela inspected the room.

“You are earlier than expected,” Frigga said calmly, allowing Odin to help her to her feet.

Mephisto’s eyebrows rose. “So you expected us, did you? My.” Frigga could see his tongue moving across his teeth behind his lips as he turned to Hela. “Nothing to say to the Allfather and Her Royal Highness the Queen, dear sister?”

Hela at last turned her gaze from the wall hangings. “We have been informed that you may require our aid,” she murmured, voice a silk that should have been reserved for a lover, not a war council. Hela’s long skirts and cloak rustled softly as dust settling on the remains of a funeral pyre as she curtsied low. “We are at your disposal.”

“As long as it remains convenient,” Odin said, tightening his grip on Frigga just enough to remind her to smile. Beginning a second war before ending the first was unwise.

Mephisto’s grin widened. “As long as it remains convenient. We have knowledge and power to reach our dear wayward brother in death, and as much desire to see him far from Yggdrasil as you.”

Odin studied the two silently, not even looking up when the Warriors Three returned, Darcy Lewis staying close to Fandral until she saw Hela and Mephisto. “Whoa whoa whoa, hold up. Nope. I am noping right the hell out of here. Bye, guys.”

Hela narrowed her eyes as Mephisto laughed. “You seem to recognize me, girl.”

Darcy froze, and Frigga barely managed to contain her smile as Darcy drew a deep breath and approached. “You know what? I can’t give any more fucks. All the fucks I had were given about three apocalyptic scenarios ago. This crazy woman took my best friend, I’m hearing all these things about the end of days, and now I’m looking at the devil? Nope. I’m done. _Done._ I have negative fucks to give. The universe owes me fucks. You, mister scary devil man, don’t get to call me ‘girl.’ It’s really rude and dismissive, and I had a really hard day, so don’t _fuck_ with me, or I’ll do the same thing to you I did to Loki.”

Mephisto’s brows rose. “And what, pray tell, is that?”

Fandral remained behind Darcy but rested his hand on his sword casually. “Continue to press her in Asgard’s halls and discover for yourself.”

Darcy glared. “You owe me an apology, giant red man.”

Frigga’s voice was soft and gentle, her eyes snapping with fury. “I will not abide poor manners in my hall, Mephisto. You know this.”

Hela’s mouth twitched. “You would antagonize us for this, most revered queen?”

“I will begin a new war if my guests are not treated with the respect and dignity I have promised they would receive in my house, yes.” She gave them a sweet smile. “We Asgardians pride ourselves on being hospitable hosts and swear protection to our guests. That protection extends beyond the physical.”

Odin rubbed Frigga’s side gently with his thumb. “”If you tresspass upon our most simple and well-known rules, Mephisto, how would you expect us to place any faith in you when we fight a war?”

Mephisto’s lip curled slightly, and he bowed deeply. “My sincerest apologies, oh sweet guest of Asgard’s royal house.”

Darcy blinked. “I… totally didn’t expect that to work, but cool. Apology accepted.”

Frigga’s smile widened. “Midgard is not a realm to be trifled with, Mephisto, as I believe you have learned on multiple occasions. Now, shall we prepare for war?”

#

Sif swallowed hard as Loki regained his footing. “What have you done?” Her voice was low and even, in spite of the pounding of her heart in her throat.

Loki licked a trickle of blood from his lip and glanced from her to Thor. “I have no choice,” he said, as calmly as he’d ever spoken to them before.

Thor was the only one of them to allow his mask to crack, allow the crown to slip away and show the man, perhaps even the boy, beneath the warrior. “Loki, do not make me do this. We will find another way.”

Loki shook his head, and Sif only saw the slight tremble in his jaw because she was looking for it. “There is no other way. Things are already in motion.”

“Do you think me so much the fool that I cannot see where this path leads?”

“I trust you are clever enough to decipher my plan and wise enough to see the necessity, Thor.”

“Loki, you are my _brother_. Do not make me do this.”

“Pray that someone has discovered a way to stop me before I can take this final step, brother,” he whispered, then thrust the scepter forward. Thor threw up Mjolnir, and the impact of the power against the hammer only sent him skidding backward into Sif.

“You know something,” Sif managed through gritted teeth as she swung her sword. Loki blocked her with the scepter, spinning and ducking between them in an elaborate dance as none of them really tried to land a fatal blow.

“Think,” Loki hissed.

#

Jane grabbed Steve’s arm and planted her feet on the ground. “Dr. Foster, please, not again.”

She shook her head. “Loki needs me to figure this out.”

“I know that–”

“Shh, let me think.” She furrowed her brows. “I could never figure out why the Tesseract wasn’t brought back to Asgard after Loki woke it up the first time.”

Steve paused and watched her, voice soft. “Doesn’t make much sense that they left it here after HYDRA. Not when…” His eyes widened slightly, jaw tightening. “Not when Schmidt and Zola built weapons powered by it.”

Jane stared at him. “And you don’t diffuse a bomb if you don’t know how. Advanced as they are in Asgard, we’re using totally different technology.”

“Could Schmidt have altered the cube somehow?”

“It’s possible, and if it was altered by Earth technology, maybe Loki needs a catalyst to get it to open another portal.”

“So the cube isn’t enough. He needs something to jump-start it.”

“Hate to break up the party,” a mechanical voice said, and they both turned to see Stark in the Iron Man suit. “But I couldn’t help overhearing when I tapped into all of the helicarrier’s audio and video feeds and decided to eavesdrop on you.”

“There has to be something on the helicarrier that Loki’s looking for,” Jane said hurriedly. “Something with enough force to unlock the Tesseract again.”

“Something that interacts with the unique gamma signature we picked up from the Tesseract because it was _made_ for the Tesseract.” The helmet turned to face Steve. “Something Fury decided we didn’t need to know about, but I’ve had JARVIS decrypting all of SHIELD’s encrypted files since I hit the bridge.”

“He made weapons,” Steve said quietly. “And they’re on this helicarrier. That’s what Loki’s after.”

“Then we need to move. Dr. Foster, get somewhere safe. We need to either destroy or dismantle those weapons.”

“Where’s Agent Romanoff?” Steve flinched at a loud roar, and Tony sighed.

“Guess putting Bruce to bed didn’t work.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your patience as I navigate three jobs, a new home, and a new kitten. Hopefully this makes up for the long delay. Enjoy the latest chapter!

It was all Natasha could do to keep from screaming. She jumped and grabbed for low-hanging bars, swung around catwalk railings, vaulted stairs, and still the Hulk was coming. Everything she touched was shuddering with the vibrations of the massive thing coming after her, mindless in his rage, and the continual crunching and screeching of twisting and snapping metal sent her heart rate skyrocketing. “Need a little help down here!” She almost convinced herself that the volume with which she was shouting into the comm was so that someone would hear her and not, as she suspected, her own terror.

Someone had to be working on fixing the turbines to keep the helicarrier in the air. Someone had to be dealing with Loki. Someone had to be navigating them where they wouldn’t kill thousands of innocent people in the event that they all went down. There wasn’t anyone left to help her.

She found a darkened, quiet corner and drew her gun. What use a pistol would be against the Hulk was anybody’s guess, but it was better than nothing. It was a security blanket if nothing else. She listened, blood pounding in her ears, and felt the scream suddenly mere feet from her more than she actually heard it. Natasha shot up and hit a valve, sending cold steam spraying down. The Hulk snarled, and she sprinted down a long, illuminated catwalk. He was close behind her, his body too big to fit through the pipes and wires, and she covered her head as they splintered and sparked above her. When she started to veer to the right, a fist the size of her rib cage slammed into her side and sent her flying into a wall. The Hulk loomed over her, and all the blood drained from her face as he pulled back his arm to strike her.

Without warning, the Hulk was sent flying through a nearby wall. Natasha’s eyes widened, and Coulson stepped through a hole in the opposite wall holding a gun she’d never seen before that seemed to envelop his arm, and had an odd blue glow. “So that’s what it does,” he said calmly before looking down at her. “Barton’s on the bridge. Stark and Captain Rogers are trying to fix the turbines. Agent Hill has Dr. Foster, she’s trying to keep her as safe as possible. Go help Director Fury on the bridge.”

Natasha swallowed hard, shaking and sweating. She could hear the Hulk growling. “I can’t leave you here alone.”

Coulson powered up the weapon and fired again. “Then we need to think of something, fast. Dr. Banner is only going to get more powerful.”

Natasha swallowed and looked around. “This thing starting to feel like a coffin to you?”

Hr moved so that his arm pressed against her shoulder. “Think, Natasha.”

“What are we supposed to do?”

Coulson took his eyes off the Hulk for a moment, voice calm and firm. “Think, Natalia.”

That second was all it took. A green fist the size of a small child slammed into Coulson, sending him into the opposite wall with a sickening thud. Natasha’s eyes narrowed, and she took a deep breath as she leapt, locking one arm around the Hulk’s massive neck and jabbing both of her fists into his skin. The Widow’s Bite crackled, sending electro-static energy into him at what would have been a lethal level for an ordinary human. The Hulk simply roared.

#

Thor winced as Loki’s knife sliced across his ribs, knowing full well that the shallow scratch was only for show rather than to actually wound, but aching that the blood was spilled by his brother nevertheless. He swung Mjolnir in a short arc to connect with Loki’s stomach, sending him up into the ceiling. Loki collapsed on the ground with a huff, shaking as he struggled to stand.

“Tell me,” he said quietly, tightening his grip on the hammer. “Tell me how I am to save you.”

Loki spat blood onto the ground as he shoved himself to his knees, resting a hand on his thigh as he sucked in a breath. “You cannot save me, Thor,” he murmured. “Be a king, not my brother.”

Thor shook his head. “No, Loki.”

“Be a king,” Loki hissed through clenched teeth, turning wild eyes upward. “Not my brother.”

“I will _not_ let you fall _again_!” Thor trembled with the force of his shout, shoving Mjolnir forward to knock Loki backward and resting the hammer on his chest. Loki moaned, and Thor tightened his jaw. “If I must hold you prisoner, I will do it. If I must beat the consciousness out of you, I will do it. But I will not let you fall again.” Thor crouched down and wrapped his hand around the back of his neck, resting his forehead against Loki’s. “I will not let you fall again, little brother.” His voice cracked. “Who will teach my child to get into mischief if you fall?”

Loki’s eyes widened, and he flicked his gaze to Sif, blood trickling from a cut on her lower lip. “She…” He swallowed hard and looked to Thor again, eyes shimmering. “Imprison me,” he whispered. “Or all will be lost.”

Thor nodded, drawing a shaking breath, and lifted the hammer. “I am sorry, Loki.” Mjolnir connected lightly with Loki’s temple, and the green eyes, tinted with that horrible blue, fluttered closed.

#

Jane scanned the screens in front of her. “This is it,” she said softly, and Maria stiffened. “This is the catalyst. Loki’s going to use these weapons to wake up the Tesseract and open a portal.”

“So we need to dismantle these weapons immediately.” Maria looked over the open crates. “There are over a hundred of them.”

“Is there a master kill switch?”

Maria shook her head. “These are all self-sustaining weapons.”

A voice crackled in her earpiece. “Agent Hill, you’re looking lovely this afternoon.”

“What is it, Stark?”

“We’re going to nosedive into the middle of the Atlantic if I don’t get this turbine going again. How much of a problem is turbulence going to be?”

The helicarrier shook, and Maria drew her gun. “Stark, the Hulk is tearing apart the underbelly of the helicarrier, and Barton is leading two dozen internationally wanted terrorists onto the bridge. Turbulence is the least of our problems.”

“Speaking of the mess that is this afternoon, how’s Dr. Foster managing? You know what…” There was a series of beeps, and his voice came through the command console Jane was using. “What’s up, doc?”

“We need to shut down over a hundred Tesseract-powered weapons before the helicarrier falls out of the sky or we get shot. Unless…” Jane looked up. “Agent Hill, we need Loki to open the portal here.”

Maria raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard you correctly.”

“No, listen. If Loki opens the portal here, and we can evacuate the helicarrier, we can send the weapons through to the other side of the universe.”

“And find a way to remotely detonate them and take out the army Loki keeps talking about,” Stark said. “Remind me to hire you later.”

Maria raised her wrist to her mouth and spoke rapidly. “Evacuation procedure delta-bravo-six. All personnel are to evacuate immediately.” She nodded. “Let’s go find Lo–” She stumbled backward with a grunt, her gun clattering to the ground, and reached with her left hand to touch the arrow shaft protruding from her right shoulder.

“Stand down, Agent Hill.” Barton nocked another arrow. “Step aside, Dr. Foster.” Jane’s fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard, and Barton blinked once. “I’m not going to ask you again.”

Jane shook her head. “Shoot me or shut up.”

Barton pulled the arrow back until the fletching touched his cheek. “Your choice.”

A boot connected with Barton’s jaw, and Natasha slammed him into the ground. She looked up at Maria, who could barely focus through the pain and black spots dancing in front of her eyes. “ _Run!_ ”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the three jobs consuming most of my time, it's been quite a while since I've updated this. I hope you can all forgive the slight Lion King-esque moment in the beginning of this chapter, and I thank you so much for being the kind, understanding readers that you are.

_"In, count of seven. Out, count of nine. Breathe, Loki. Feel the air moving through your body. You are that air that can pass through anything. You are the water that will always find balance. You are the rock that will remain steady and constant. You are a world into yourself. This is where magic comes from. This is the movement of our blood inside us. We have what stars themselves are made of inside us. You have that inside of yourself. Feel that power, and let it move through you. Let it strengthen you. Let it be you, all of you. Can you feel it, Loki? Feel it. This is a part of you. This is something older than Asgard itself, older than all of Yggdrasil. This is what created the very first life, so long ago. This is a part of you, Loki. You are a part of the entire cosmos, and the cosmos is a part of you. There's nothing to be frightened of, my sweet boy. Nothing at all. Not when you have the whole cosmos inside you. Now, will you trust me? Open your eyes. I'm right here. Open your eyes."_

Loki squeezed his eyes shut even more tightly, the throbbing in his head becoming a lancing pain. It was worse when he could hear her, because she was never there when he opened his eyes.

_"Do it for me, my sweet boy. I'm right here."_

"Mother," he breathed, an overwhelming tide of agony sweeping through his entire body and spilling from the corners of his eyes.

_"Open your eyes, Loki."_

The breath caught in his throat, and when he coughed, his eyes opened of their own accord.

_"I'm here, my son. I'm watching you."_

Frigga's form wavered, but it was there.

___She was there._ _ _

Loki tried to shove himself upright, but nausea dragged him back to the floor and rolled him over. "Mother..."

___"Breathe, Loki. In, count of seven..."_ _ _

"...out, count of nine." He forced himself first to his hands and knees, then to only one knee. Turning his head made his vision swim, but she was still there. "Am I imagining you, Mother?"

___"No, you are not. Do not lose hope, my sweet boy. Remember."_ _ _

Loki's eyes widened slightly. "I have the cosmos inside me. That's it." He closed his eyes and resumed his measured breathing, feeling the air moving through him, the balance of his magic with that of the Tesseract within him like water finding equilibrium, and the stone of his mind remaining steady and firm. Thanos could twist him, warp him, torture him, but his mother had been there first, and she had shown a little boy not to be afraid of magic, but to bend it to his will.

The game had been one of conquest, with the only possible result being death. The corners of his mouth turned up, and a low laugh began to ease the ache in his head. Loki had always been skilled at changing the rules of the game, and if he couldn't change the rules, he could always cheat.

 

#

 

Clint's fist tightened around a handful of Natasha's hair, and he slammed her face forward into the wall. Her heel landed hard against his instep, and she drove her elbow into the space just below his sternum. When he moved to grab her throat, she bit down into his hand. He didn't have to think about movement as his body shifted into the next attack, as if the Tesseract was directing his actions down to the muscles and bones. There were too many calculations to make, beyond what any human mind was capable of, but the Tesseract was making them in all of their minds. He knew which components were necessary, and in what quantities, for the reaction between the Tesseract and the SHIELD-created weapons to open a portal between two ends of the universe.

These kinds of calculations could be distracting.

_The compounds will be volatile once they move within a three meter radius of each other. Block right with arm, swing hard left at her temple. She's too fast. Have to combine the magic from the scepter with the weaponry because the gamma signature was modified. Headlock, can't break free, windpipe is being crushed, have to slam her back against the wall. Gamma signature is compromised..._

_...what am I doing?_

The jolt from the Widow's Bite made every muscle in his body seize, and he collapsed backward, trapping her under him. Her legs were locked around his waist, her arms around his neck, and he was having trouble breathing.

_The Chitauri force will mobilize through the open portal quickly enough to cover... to cover... headlock... windpipe... Tesseract was modified..._

_Natalia Romanova, Black Widow agent for the KGB, trained in the Red Room after the KGB disbanded at the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, trained as a fringe espionage operative and assassin for the Russian government, target of SHIELD special ops, Strike Team Alpha sent in to infiltrate Moscow base, derailed outside of Kiev while undercover, flash of red hair and blue-green eyes, so fast, how is she so young, how can I... Natasha... Natasha Romanoff... Nat... Nat. Nat!_

Clint swallowed hard, blinking and scrambling to grab onto something, anything. "Tasha," he croaked, one hand gripping her forearm while the other slammed on the ground.

"I'm sorry, Clint," she said, her fist connecting with his temple before everything went black.

 

#

 

Coulson glanced up as Captain Rogers entered the escape craft just long enough to move Agent Hill carefully from over his shoulder to a seat beside the makeshift gurney. He grinned weakly at her. "You're not looking so great, Maria."

She winced and pressed a wad of gauze against her shoulder. "I think I might finally take my vacation time. What happened to you?"

"Dr. Banner... well, Hulk... smashed. What about you?"

"Barton, after I beat up a few terrorists."

Coulson turned back to Captain Rogers. "Is the helicarrier evacuated?"

"We're getting there. I'll see you on the ground."

Once he left, Hill shoved herself to her feet, teeth ground together, and staggered to a locked panel in the wall. Coulson blinked slowly at her. "Maria, what are you doing?"

"I'm running out of bullets," she said, finding a box of ammunition. "They never mention that in movies, you ever notice that? Nobody runs out of bullets. You need to reload."

"You're still bleeding, you need to sit down."

"If Loki's still on board, we need to make sure we can communicate Dr. Foster's plan."

"Maria."

"And we need a fail safe. Nobody's thinking about what we do if the homicidal alien with the brainwashing stick decides not to cooperate."

" _Maria._ " Coulson pushed himself upright as much as he could, grunting before falling back against the collapsed lab table covered in defective parachute packs and a few coats Natasha had been able to scrounge together after bringing him here. "You're going to bleed out. I have at least four broken ribs, I think my clavicle is in six pieces, and I have a charlie horse. Neither of us are cleared for active field duty right now. Sit down."

She set her jaw as she looked at him, then eased back down onto the floor and let her head fall back. "I feel so useless right now."

"So do I. So, let's try to figure out a contingency from here so there aren't more bodies for the Avengers to step over."

The corner of her mouth turned up. "You don't really believe this team's going to work."

"I have to." The dizziness was beginning to subside. "If I don't believe in heroes, there's no reason to keep doing this job."

She shook her head and looked up to the ceiling. "I wish I was as sure as you."

"I'm not sure. I'm just hopeful."

She laughed quietly. "Hopeful. Now."

"Seems like the best time to be." He closed his eyes. "Natasha was fine when she left me. She was able to lure Dr. Banner to the containment room and disengage it before she brought me here."

"She went after Barton after he shot me." She sighed quietly. "So we lost Dr. Banner."

"I think he'll survive the drop."

"Coulson, we're at eighty-five thousand feet."

"No we're not. We've been descending for the last seventeen minutes."

"You did that on purpose. What was our altitude when she dropped Banner?"

"I don't know, but the thrusters should have time to activate and bring him down safely."

"And if they don't?"

"They should."

"But if they don't, Coulson, what do we do?"

He opened his eyes again and stared at the panels above him. "Then we've made a lot of terrible mistakes."

"I wish it was the first time."

Coulson jumped at a sudden flash of green and black. Loki looked at them both with wide, wild eyes. "Get out, quickly," he said, releasing a startled Sif from his grip. She jerked away from him.

"What are you _doing_ , Loki?"

"Showing someone the cosmos," he said, and disappeared again.

 

#

 

Jane sprinted through the helicarrier, darting between and around the agents hurriedly making their way to the escape crafts. "Loki! Loki, where are you? Loki!" She smacked into someone and tried to brush past them, but the hand gripping her shoulder held her still, and she was forced to stop and look up. "Sif, I don't have time for this."

"You will make time, Jane Foster. Loki is not yet conscious." Her voice softened. "Your courage is admirable, and your intellect is as formidable as his. We need that now. Speak with me as you would speak with him. What is our plan?"

"We have to get Loki to open the portal here and use the Tesseract to detonate the weapons while they're still on the helicarrier," she said, breath coming faster. Sif's eyes narrowed.

"Loki will not be able to do so if he is not on this craft when it detonates."

"There's a way to initialize detonation remotely. I can use Dr. Banner's gamma signature research to measure the volatile compounds and show Loki how to trigger the first small explosion at a delay, and then he can close the portal behind the helicarrier. I have to get to Loki."

Thor rushed toward them. "Jane Foster! The humans are completing the evacuation, you must get-" He froze, grip on Mjolnir tightening as he looked at Sif. "Where is Loki? You were meant to watch over him."

Sif smiled, grip on Jane tightening as her eyes darkened. "Do you fear for his welfare, Asgardian?" The voice grew rougher, and Jane flinched as the nails grew longer and dug into her shoulder. "You do not believe that he is truly lost to you. I delight in reminding you that my brother is significantly more powerful than yours." Reddening skin shed the illusion of Asgardian armor in favor of a flowing cape with a high cowl, and not much else. "You will not leave this craft while an innocent life remains upon it, and with her, your brother will not hesitate to take me to mine."

Thor's jaw tightened. "Thanos will not ally himself with you. He will destroy you as tribute to Lady Death."

"Not if I offer him too good a deal to pass up." He grinned wide. "I only want one world, and I'll use it to lure the Silver Surfer. If Thanos kills Galactus, our Mother will be able to rule with Eternity without fear of Galactus consuming her."

"Where is Sif, Mephisto?"

"She is..." He rolled his free wrist and shrugged. "Elsewhere, with my sister, no doubt."

"Hela would not abide this plan."

"You would be amazed what my _darling_ sister would do for fear of our brother."

Jane opened her mouth, then saw the barest flicker of green flame behind Mephisto. When she looked up, she could see a faint blue spark in his eyes. "So what does Hela get out of helping you?" When Mephisto turned his gaze back to her, she nearly froze, but she took a deep breath. Sulfur rolled through her lungs. "She'll need a world."

"She has Helheim and Asgard while I have nothing," he sneered. "I will lead the Silver Surfer to both and let Galactus glut himself. Or, she and Thanos can fight with one another, and I'll take the entire cosmos."

"I don't believe I'd care much for that," a silken voice said softly, and Mephisto's talons dug into Jane's shoulder until it was all she could do to keep from yelping.

"Hela, what trickery is–"

"You thought me in the Nothingness," she said as she materialized from the shadows, gown rustling around her. "With the Aesir warrior."

"You know Thanos is watching and listening," Mephisto hissed. "I will say whatever necessary to tempt him."

"You are a good liar, Mephisto," Hela's voice said from behind them, and Mephisto whirled around. Jane barely bit back a scream as the five wounds in her shoulder deepened and burned where he held her. Hela stood in front of them as well as behind him, but the second Hela's eyes grew greener, and the voice shifted to a familiar one. "But you are not the liesmith." The horns of Loki's helmet caught the light as they materialized while he shifted. "And your shape-shifting lacks the proper artistry. You have to emulate your target's mannerisms as well as their appearance." He shifted to Sif with a head tilt. "I would never waste time asking an ally to reveal a plan unnecessarily, and leaving someone like Loki unattended? Foolish."

"Foolish indeed," Hela murmured from behind them, and Mephisto shrieked as she wrapped her hands over his face.

Loki grabbed Jane's hand as he flung a knife at Mephisto's arm. It buried itself just above his wrist, and Loki pulled Jane into his arms and clung to her as Hela dragged Mephisto into the Nothingness, blood dripping down his hand.

"We have to get her out of here, Thor," he said, and Jane shook her head.

"No, I have to help you."

"Thor, Thanos knows I aim to betray him. You must go quickly. Sif is safe. If I fail, Asgard will need its heir apparent to lead it to war."

Jane nearly fell as the helicarrier lurched in the air, and Thor wrapped his arm around her waist. "Send us," he said, holding her tighter as she tried to squirm away.

"How can you jut _leave_ him?"

"Because we are princes, Jane," Loki said, and the horrible gentleness of his voice terrified her. "We know that our lives belong to our realm, not to us."

Thor nodded, voice thick. "Return to defend Asgard with me, Brother."

Loki took a deep breath. "I'll certainly do my best." He flexed his fingers, the scepter materializing between them, and flicked his other wrist to open a blackened fold in reality behind them. As Thor began to step back, an explosion below the deck of the helicarrier jerked the craft again, and Loki stumbled. Jane's eyes widened.

"Someone started detonating the weapons. There's going to be a chain reaction."

Thor grabbed Loki's shoulder. "We have no time! Open the portal now!"

"Let's hope I can teleport us away in time," he said, slashing downward with the scepter as his eyes began to glow blue again. Jane closed her eyes.

 

#

 

Sif pressed her face to the glass window of the escape craft, Stark's metal suit flying between their plane and another holding Captain Rogers, Agent Romanoff, Agent Barton, and Director Fury.

"What's happening?"

"Nothing yet, son of Coul." Sif squinted, then flinched as an explosion destroyed the belly of the helicarrier. Within seconds, a whirling blue mass spasmed around the helicarrier and ripped open. She could see the stars of another galaxy within as the helicarrier was swallowed up, still exploding as it careened into a Chitauri fleet.

A crackling voice came over the comm system. "Everyone alive and accounted for?"

"Everyone except Thor, Loki, and Dr. Foster," Hill answered.

"So we don't know if they got off before the helicarrier..." Stark's voice trailed off, and Hill looked at Sif.

"We will speak with Queen Frigga upon our return to Asgard. If my brother, Lord Heimdall, cannot see them, she will find them." Sif's voice was calm. She was a warrior of Asgard. She was betrothed to its future king. She carried their child within her, and that child would become a warrior. She would not allow anyone, not even herself, to mark fear in her voice or demeanor.

 

#

 

_So many worlds in the cosmos,_ he thought, relishing the pulsing of movement and life in the vast emptiness around him as he turned his gaze toward a galaxy into which he had at last sent his herald, a galaxy in which resided worlds full of life, and watched over by the children of Death. _So many worlds, and I hunger._

 

#

 

Steve made sure that everyone else was out of the plane before stepping onto the grass. How they'd explain all of these quinjets in the middle of a field was anybody's guess. He raised a hand to shield his eyes from the brilliant afternoon sun as the final jet landed. It was so peaceful. It felt uncomfortable to be here like this. With everything that they'd faced in the past few days, it shouldn't be sunny or warm. It was just... wrong.

He turned and nearly tripped over something in the long grass. The bottom of his stomach seemed to fall out.

When Sif appeared at his side, Steve didn't know what to say. They both just stared in silence at Mjolnir.

 

#

 

Loki opened his eyes and stared up at a host of stars. The atmosphere here was thin, and as he struggled to breathe, he turned his head and reached. Jane was prone on the ground not far away, and Thor was further still. He winced and rolled onto his side, pushing himself up with a grunt.

"Your companions live," a voice said, and Loki turned his head. A gleaming silver board hovered just before him, and the being crouched down on it to bring strange, completely white eyes close to his. "And all of you are far from your home world."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next story in the Inversionverse.


End file.
